This past Saturday, Eleanor and I went to the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Palatines to America Spring Conference (in New Holland at Yoder's). There were to be two speakers, but, in the days before the meeting, the father of one speaker came into a life threatening situation. The conference chairman was lucky in that the other speaker also delivers talks on the same subject as the speaker who could not attend. So, Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer became the speaker for three talks, and, fortunately, she is a very capable speaker.
Her biggest impact was perhaps with "Long-Distance Genealogy". One of the tools in this is the research letter requesting information . It actually applies to us here because our list is a tool itself and it is certainly long distance. We actually see "letters" on the list here requesting information. In addition to those addressed to the list, I receive some privately by email and by USPS.
People would be more effective in obtaining information if they observed the following items:
First Impressions Count. I am not inclined to answer someone who does not follow a few rules of Standard English usage. Thoughts should be expressed in sentences. Capital letters should be used where appropriate (which is certainly not everywhere). Punctuation is used. Look at the comments of E. W. Wallace on the list for good examples of how it should be done.
Keep It Short! Some people ramble. Writers should not tire out the readers while they come to their point. Do not send the entire original message back to the sender. She has probably read it already.
Be Sure It's Legible. We don't have much problem that way here because of the standard fonts used. Don't blame the writer for using umlauts. They are almost a necessity here and your email program should be adjusted to receive them correctly.
Include full contact information. We do accept email addresses without snail mail addresses. But did you give your real name? Hiding behind a mask does not encourage people to answer. I hate to write, "Dear noname@isp.com". Are you a person or a series of code letters?
Be specific in your questions. "Are your Smiths related to my Browns?" does not suffice. Names are incomplete, no place is mentioned, no time is given. I personally, and the list in general, get too many questions of this type.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.