No 36: Rootsweb Mailing Lists

In Blog No 28 I wrote about Ancestry.com which is a subscription internet service that I use. There are also many free sources of information which you can use on the internet and many of these can be found on the Rootsweb website, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com As the web address suggests this is part of the Ancestry range of family history services. The amount of information here is enormous but I'll simply concentrate on the Mailing Lists which enables people to ask questions and in the hope that someone else on the list can help them.

Anyone can join a Mailing List. Go to the above website and under "Mailing Lists" click on "Index". You then get a choice of a couple of boxes and then Surname, USA, International and Other. In the International box click on "Wales" and then you get a list of Mailing Lists you can join. Some are general for the whole of Wales and one is in the Welsh language only but there is also one for all the old counties. I've subscribed to the Gwynedd, Caernarvonshire, Merionethshire and more recently the Denbighshire list. I then receive messages from people saying that they had ancestors of a given name living in a particular place during a certain time and asking whether anyone has any more information about them or similar messages.

I do this in the hope that someone will be looking for a link to my family and I can find information I didn't previously know or I can find a previously unknown relative and provide them with information. I've been lucky once so far but I'll tell you about this next time. But I've picked up an enormous amount of information through these messages. People have replied to the queries saying, "why don't you try this source" or saying where there's good information about a particular issue or that a good selection of relevant photographs can be found on a certain website. I've therefore found it very useful to remain subscribed to these lists and it's free.

So far I've only use the mailing lists once to look for an ancestor. One of my great grandfathers was given a 15 year sentence for manslaughter in 1875 but was released after 11 years 5 months but there is no record of what happened to him on release. From the record of his correspondence whilst in prison there was a possibility that he might have gone to Hertfordshire. I therefore subscribed onto the Hertfordshire list and posted my question as to whether there was any record of my great grandfather, Henry Jones, in a certain village after 1886. I received a number of helpful replies from people trying to help and one person in particular was extremely helpful. However, I unfortunately didn't find him but the responses did help me to conclude that he didn't go to Hertfordshire so I was able to eliminate that avenue of investigation. I therefore unsubscribed from the Hertfordshire List after about two months but the fate of Henry Jones remains one of the numerous loose ends in my family tree.

I made those enquiries in January 2005 and three weeks ago I received an email from someone who had only recently picked up those messages. Unfortunately it wasn't about Henry Jones but some very interesting information about the person with whom he had been corresponding. The lesson here is that it's worth leaving messages as you never know when someone may pick them up and respond!

I would certainly recommend that people subscribe to the lists that are of interest to them as you've got nothing to loose. Select your lists and follow the instructions to subscribe. After you've seen how the list operates you can then pose a question about your ancestors and you'll certainly get some help if not always the complete answer.

The Gwynedd Family History Society meetings for the next four weeks are:

Bangor, 1 December (first Tuesday of each month) 7.00pm at the Quakers Meeting Hall, Dean Street: Oscar Mathieson, "The day that the Council saved Bangor"

Caernarfon, 26 November (last Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the The Library, Lôn Pafiliwn: Dr Dafydd Roberts, "Rheilffyrdd y Chwareli"

Dolgellau, 12 November (second Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at the Royal Ship Hotel: Dorothy Pritchard, "Dyddiaduron Bryn Ifan"

Conwy, 14 December (second Monday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Ebenezer, Abergele Road, Old Colwyn (please note new meeting place):
Member's Evening

Llangefni, 19 November (third Thursday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Smyrna, Ffordd Glanhwfa: Gina Kent "Lt. Williams of Cefn Cwmwd"

Pwllheli, 20 November (third Friday of each month) 7.00pm at Capel Seion, Lon Dywod:
Parch Emlyn Richards, "Bywyd Lloft Stabal"