Will you Help Create
a Research (Query) List
on the FEEFHS Web Site?
© copyright 1996 by FEEFHS; all rights
reserved
Latest Update: 31 May 1999 (Updated links)
Help Create a Research (Query) List on this Web
Site
What is a "Research List" on this web site? It is a web
page posting of a collection
of genealogy queries from submitters who list their eMail (or
postal) address and share a
common interest in a given ethnic or national region or religious
genealogy group. In essence
it has evolved into a list of queries posted on the world wide
web. These queries tend to be
longer, more informative and less cryptic than those usually
found in genealogy
publications.
Why are they flourishing on our World Wide Web site today? In
part it is because FEEFHS
has a full text search engine index and also that our site is
visited quite often - over 160,000
times in the month of August. Thus it is an exciting new way to
access other genealogy
record researchers that are entering their surnames into the
FEEFHS search engine index.
"Bingo's" -- postive connections with other submitters -- are
becoming more common.
How does the FEEFHS search engine index work? Type in
your surname or
placename,
submit it and a few seconds later up pops a list of every mention
of that name on our web
site, with hypertext "hot links" that put you a mouse click away
from each listing. Then
when an interesting query is found, you just click on a hypertext
"mailto:" link found coded
int each submitters eMail address. This way you can send an
eMail message from within the
Research List on the web. Each FEEFHS research list is built to
include this feature.
What about the big Web Search Engines? An important second
reason is that after a
month or two, other major web search engines (like AltaVista,
Hotbot and Lycos) start
indexing our new research list as a new page on their next visit
to FEEFHS. And that means
that your query is indexed too and receives even more exposure to
genealogy record searchers
looking for your surnames or placenames.
Such is the powerful ability of our search engine, and the WWW
search engines, to place
every unique word at the fingertips of the world. And thus
awareness of your surname search
grows on the world wide web as genealogists check their surnames,
see the new page listed,
visit it and then become submitters themselves.
Existing Research Lists: Three ethnic or national research
lists currently exist on our
web site and another four may well be added in October.
Currently in existence are:
- SERL (Southeastern European
Researcher
List)
This Germanic list was started several years ago by Norbert
Bambach of Cinncinatti. Ohio.
The regions covered include the Banat, Batschka, Slovenia,
Syrmien, Schwaebisch Turkei,
other areas settled by ethnic Germans (primarily Danube-Swabians
and Transylvania Saxons)
in Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Croatia. It is linked to the
Banat FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions) and the new Research List Cross-Index.
SERL came onto the FEEFHS web site on 15 December 1995. Since
then it has quadrupled
in size to over 110K. It now consists of three files:
asubmitters list with index plus two
query lists: A-H and L-Z. As with the other Research Lists, all
submitters with a listed eMail
address are linked by a "mailto:" email form with the Internet
eMail protocol. So far all
submitters seem to have eMail addresses and Norbert Bambach has
provided only his eMail
address: 72730.633@compuserve.com
SERL has become a creative template in forming other research
lists, including CRL and
KRL.
- CRL (Croatian Research
List)
The Croatian Research List is updated with messages periodically.
It started with an eMail
expression of interest last Spring to FEEFHS by a
Croatian-Canadian and the subsequent
collaboration with FEEFHS. The CRL was first posted on our web
site on 16 June 1996.
Since then, it has quickly grown to over 40 submitters and shows
every evidence of continued
expansion to help Croatians on and off line.
The CRL format is simular to that of the SERL: a submitter name
and email address followed
by a free form text query, listing surnames, placenames and
dates. Sometimes a submitter
also mentions special sources he or she has access to. "Snail
mail" (postal) submittals can
now be sent to FEEFHS at P. O. Box 4327, Davis, California
95617-4327. However most
queries that have arrived so far have come via eMail. Until
further notice you can send
submittals by eMail to feefhs@feefhs.org.
Four more Research Lists are currently coming online
here:
- HURL (Hungarian Research
List) (under
construction)
The Hungarian Research List covers modern
Hungary and the Slovak
Republic, plus parts of the Ukraine, Transylvania (Romania now)
and parts of northern Serbia
and Croatia. The HURL is under construction as this is written.
It should be posted on the
web site by early December. It is expected to be the result of
collaboration between Doug
Holmes of the HAFS (Hungarian-American Friendship Society) of
Sacramento and
FEEFHS.
Doug is sending FEEFHS the queries received and published in the
last four issues of
Regi Magyarorszag (Old Hungary), his typeset quality
newsletter. These 30+ queries
will serve as the initial basis for the HURL. To submit your
query, contact Doug Holmes by
eMail at doug@dholmes.com
or by postal mail at
2811 Elvyra Way, Apt. #236, Sacramento, California 95821-5865.
- LVRL (Latvia Research
List)
Mrs. Bonnie Weber Price of McAllen Texas was searching her
Latvian for a year without
much success when she read of this initiative in late September
1996 and offered to help
FEEFHS by collecting and assembling Latvian genealogy eMail and
snail mail queries and
passing them on to the FEEFHS Webmaster for posting. The country
code for Latvia is LV,
thus the adoption of it in the acronym for the name of this list.
It will be online shortly.
Submit your query to her at price@mcal.vt.com
- SIRL (Slovenia Research
List)
SI is the
two letter code for Slovenia. This List is being created and
initially composed of queries that
have appeared in recent issues of the SGS Newsletter of
the Slovenian Genealogy Society
International. Snail mail
queries sent to
President Al Peterlin in Pennsylvania will be added to eMail
entries sent to Donna Debevec
Cullaird at LRFM15A@prodigy.com and
posted periodically. The SIRL is now expected to be activated on
or before mid
October.
TRANSRL (Transylvanian Research List) Transylvania is a
former province of
hungary
that became a part of Romania at the end of World War I. This
List will be moderated by
FEEFHS member Lazlo B. Apathy III -- Les Apathy to his Interent
friends. He has been
very active on AOL and the Internet for over a year and is an
ideal person for this task, with
lots of energy and an abiding interest in the homeland of his
Transylvanian ancestors. Les
can be reached at LesApathy@aol.com. his snail
mail address is 191 Selma Avenue, Englewood, Florida
34223-3830.
His Transylvanian list will be activated by mid-October 1996.
Les encourages all persons
with transylvania heritage to send him their queries for posting
on his web page.
Suggestions for more effective Research List Messages
While individual formats
for these lists vary with the wishes of the moderator who created
and maintains them, there
are some common suggestions for submissions to all of them:
* Capitalize all surnames.
* Avoid cryptic messages.
* State your research problems succinctly.
* Provide an eMail address or a postal mailing address.
* List the placenames important to your search if you know
them.
* Review your message periodically; then revise, extend and
refine it.
* Avoid forms and tables; using one line of text per person is
preferred.
* Include all relevent data: surnames and important dates of your
search.
* Encourage other researchers you encounter to post their queries
on the list too.
* Remember all unique words of your message are indexed by our
search engine.
* Include all surnames you are searching or have information on
to share with others.
* Advise the moderator of the list if or when your eMail address
or postal address
changes.
What is the future for Research Lists on the FEEFHS Web
Site? The prospects
appear bright. This concept also may have special potential for
helping to create a new genealogy society (where none yet
exist in North America)
and especially where an insufficient number of interested
researchers, (or insufficent
leadership) is available at the moment to provide the initial
nucleus for a viable
organization.
Thus in principal it would seem that the following lists have the
potential for being
launched:
ALRL (Albania)
ATRL (Austria)
BARL (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
BGRL (Bulgarian)
EERL (Estonian)
FIRL (Finland)
LIRL (Liechtenstein)
MDRL (Moldava)
MKRL (Macedonia)
MRL (Montenegro)
PSRL (Posen) - former German Empire province
RORL (Romania)
RURL (Russia)
SARL (Silesian-American)
SUDRL (Sudetenland) - former German Empire region
CHRL (Swiss)
UARL (Ukrainian)
YURL (Yugoslavia - Serbia, etc)
Each of these is literally "waiting in the wings" for someone
like you to help activate them,
as B. Price of Texas recently did for the Latvian Research List.
All we need to activate a
HomePage for any of those l;isted above is for an existing
organization or FEEFHS members
and other non-members to submit entries (queries) for this
purpose.
We are currently underway in building the SARL (Silesian-American
Research List). This
will start by using previous queries sent to us as a result of
our the Silesian Genealogy
Society in Wroclaw Poland. We hope to have it posted later in
October.
It is also possible that other genealogy organizations and
individuals may wish to have an
online presence for their ethnic, national or religious-based
genealogy queries. We welcome
the opportunity to be of service to both organizations and
individuals this way.
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