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.

Three more Research Lists are currently coming online here:
- 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 listed 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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© copyright 1996 by FEEFHS; all rights reserved

Help Create a Research (Query) List on this Web Site

Will you Help Create
a Research (Query) List
on the FEEFHS Web Site?