Dear David,
Yes, there are a lot of them out there, perhaps millions! One consolation -
most are not on the net! At least, not yet.
I wonder if there isn't some way that a new selection could be added: "ALL"
and have the receiving email address perhaps the TNRoots-L list. That would
solve the problem of Benton Co. being on the top of the list, and the
person writing the query would have a fairly good audiance for his query
immediately. Of course, Larry might have something to say about this.
Or perhaps the recipient address could be a special page on the server that
would automatically process the query? That would eliminate the need for a
personal touch. The queries are already coded anyway and there is no
absolute need for an index since any web page can be searched using the
browser's search function.
Obviously the query quoted was from a newbie. In the last 30+ years of
handling inquiries on Wayne Co. TN I've received a lot of these. And you'd
be surprised how many people see a surname listed on RSL and write to ask
if the lister has any information on a person with the same surname, but
certainly not the same date span or geographic span of the listing. I get
them all the time and have seriously considered removing my surnames from
RSL for this reason. Surprisingly, I have never met anyone researching my
ancestors as a result of one of these messages.
Bridgett, Nancy and others: Is there a way to do the "ALL" page so it would
automatically post these queries? And do we want something list this? Isn't
that what soc.genealogy.surnames.usa is all about?
Edgar
Edgar D. Byler, III
edby3(a)netease.net
Editor, Wayne County Historian
Wayne County, Tennessee, USA
Wayne County Web Page:
http://www.netease.net/wayne
----------
From: David L. Snow <DLSNOW(a)worldnet.att.net>
To: TNGEN-L(a)rootsweb.com
Cc: Loonetta(a)prodigy.net
Subject: [TNGEN-L] %&*I_)(**^^ Query Idiots
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 1998 11:23 PM
Bridgett & Nancy,
Need some help on the quantity of "not our county" and useless queries
that
are being submitted by some of our brain-dead "customers"
!!!!! It is
getting to the point, that we are having to delete almost half of the
queries we are receiving for Benton County. And I know, from previous
messages, that Benton Co. is not alone in this bombardment of trash from
the "walking dead".
The following exchange is typical of what we have been receiving (this is
from a couple days ago):
Received Query:
> PERKEY - looking for any PERKEY'S - we are from Harrisburg, Pa.
> can date us to 1795. send info to <I won't put in here what I'd like
to, DLS>
Trying to be polite < and to determine if he could actually read and
understand English and the instructions on the Query Page > , we
responded:
> Hi Mr. Perkey,
>
> I received a query from you and just wanted to double check that it's a
> Benton County Tennessee Query. Please let me know if it is and I
will
> be more than happy to add it to our pages.
>
> Alison
Our Mr. Perky responded <and yes, that's his real name>:
>benton county is ok, but would like it in all tenn. counties
Are there a lot of these people loose out there, or are they just
concentrating on searching for ancestors from Tennessee ???? Why don't
they
go look in Arkansas ????
Please do the following for us:
1. Move Benton County further down the County list on the County Query
Page. In the Middle of the list would be fine. No queries is better than
this. I will add a query mailmerge form of some kind to our County Page
for
"real" Benton County researchers would can actually find
their way to our
WebSite.
2. Add an "All County" query item at the top of the county query list,
so
other CC's don't have to go thru this. You can have
submissions to the
"All County" query's go into a cyber "black hole" if you want.
Help us out here, please
Dave