The purpose of the ``Genealogy in New York State'' (GEN-NYS-L) mailing list is to band together those genealogists (amateur and professional) whose research is in New York State, so that we can share experiences, examine sources, give advice, make suggestions that others may find the information they are seeking.
This section covers how to join and leave the list and some
background information.
Like most mailing lists on the internet, joining and
participating in GEN-NYS-L is free. However, I would like
to suggest, buy no means require, that you consider joining
the RootsWeb Genealogy Data Cooperative which runs the
machines that host the GEN-NYS-L mailing list. You will
find the Supporter and Sponsor levels are very reasonable
and provide some added benefits. For more information, see
the web page:
This mailing list is managed by the SmartList software
which is different than other mailing lists managed by
Majordomo or LISTSERV.
To subscribe, send mail to If you find you can't handle the number of messages sent by the
list, you may want to consider switching to the Digest version of
the list.
This mailing list is managed by the SmartList software which is
different than other mailing lists managed by Majordomo or LISTSERV.
To unsubscribe, send mail to
If you are currently subscribed to the non-digest
version of the list, first unsubscribe then subscribe to the
digest version.
To unsubscribe, send mail to
While they are technically different mailing lists, both GEN-NYS-L
and GEN-NYS-L-DIGEST are the same in terms of the messages they
contain. The only difference is the way they are distributed to you.
If you subscribe to GEN-NYS-L, for every message someone sends to
the group, you get a message.
However, if you subscribe to GEN-NYS-L-DIGEST, a number of messages
are bundled up and put into one digest message before it is sent to
you. Some people prefer this way because it cuts down on the number
of messages they get in their inbox.
It really just comes down to a matter of personal preference --
just pick one.
If you are currently subscribed to the non-digest version of the
list, first unsubscribe from GEN-NYS-L and then subscribe to the
digest version (GEN-NYS-L-DIGEST).
Marc Nozell is the list owner for GEN-NYS-L and GEN-NYS-L-DIGEST.
Send him mail if you have completely read this FAQ and still have
problems. His preferred email address is: nozell@rootsweb.com, but
nozell@wildcat.mv.com or nozell@zko.dec.com will also work.
Do I get paid for this? Ha! Like most other mailing list owners, I
support GEN-NYS-L and associated web page on my own time with my own
money. I do it because I'm working on tracing my New York
ancestors, it is a way to make the internet a better and more useful
place, and I enjoy doing it (usually ;-)
Mail sent to GEN-NYS-L@rootsweb.com is delivered to all the
subscribers on the GEN-NYS-L and GEN-NYS-L-DIGEST lists.
Use a web browser to open the location:
You first need to be subscribed to the GEN-NYS-L mailing list.
Send mail to GEN-NYS-L@rootsweb.com, make sure you have a reasonable
subject line (e.g. ``Claudius SMITH, Orange Co'') and provide enough
information that someone can be of help. Be sure to include your
return email address and your real name. Some mailers don't
properly display a return email address, so this is very important.
Also including your real name is just a nice thing to do. No one
likes chatting with someone known only as ``SAMJ46198@AOL.COM'' or
``71234.987@compuserve.com''
There are no hard and fast rules, but generally speaking, if you
think your reply would be of help to someone else on the list, then
post it to the entire list. Otherwise, just send it to the original
person.
If you pose a question and get quite a lot of feedback, you may want
to send a message to the list with a summary of the information.
Anything that is related to genealogy *and* New York State is fair
game. NOTE: Short one-time commercial messages advertising services
or products are allowed if they are of particular interest to the
group. But please, no email spamming.
There are two ways go get the latest copy.
Visit the URL:
This FAQ is also available in other formats.
Send a mail message to
In a few minutes you will get a copy of the FAQ and confirmation of
the request.
All the email messages that have been posted to GEN-NYS-L since its
transition to rootsweb.com (August 1996) are available for review by
email. It is also possible to automatically request a copy of the
latest and greatest version of the GEN-NYS-L.FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions)
Every mail client is different, but your message should
look something like this:
The ``ls'' command will return a directory listing of all the old
messages in the latest/ subdirectory where is where all the old
email message are kept. The file names are pretty uninteresting,
they are simply numbers that correspond to the the order that they
arrived.
The first egrep line means ``search all the files in the latest
directory for the lines that start with the string Subject:'' You can
then request (``get latest/123'') those files that look interesting.
The second egrep line searches all the old messages for the string
``http'' so it should list all the files that contain references to
web sites.
The get command means send you the file 750 in the subdirectory
latest/. It happens to be a posting of mine about how to use the
RSL.
The URL for the web page is:
The USGenWeb project has a New York State web page:
Kim Harris Myers <estral@vivanet.com> is the coordinator for NYS
Genealogy Web page.
A list of the Early American Newspaper Collection (one file for each
of 21 states) may be found at
There are a number of mailing lists on the internet and a fair
number of them are genealogy related.
The two best places to find other
genealogy related lists is Vicki Lindsay's web page:
To: GEN-NYS-L-request@rootsweb.com
Subject:
SUBSCRIBE
Be sure not to put anything after that one word. If your mailer
automatically includes a ``signature'', be sure to turn it off before
you send the message.
To: GEN-NYS-L-request@rootsweb.com
Subject:
UNSUBSCRIBE
Be sure not to put anything after that one word. If your mailer
automatically includes a ``signature'', be sure to turn it off before
you send the message.
To: GEN-NYS-L-DIGEST-request@rootsweb.com
Subject:
SUBSCRIBE
Be sure not to put anything after that one word. If your
mailer automatically includes a ``signature'', be sure to
turn it off before you send the message.
And follow the links to the archives. The mailing list owner tries
to update the archives towards the beginning of each month. If you
don't see last month's archives, pester the list owner.
To: GEN-NYS-L-request@rootsweb.com
Subject: archive
get GEN-NYS-L.FAQ
Remember that case is important.
To: GEN-NYS-L-request@rootsweb.com
Subject: archive
ls latest/*
egrep ^Subject: latest/*
egrep http latest/*
get latest/750
Okay, so what does that all mean?
Some GEN-NYS-L ``old timers'' or people using web search engines may
also be familiar with the old URL
(http://www.mv.com/ipusers/wildcat/gen-nys-l.html), while this
currently is identical to what is on www.rootsweb.com, it will
eventually go away.
In additional to providing original information, it contains a number
of pointer to other NY research web sites. I urge everyone to take a
look at this execellent page and consider contributing time,
information or expertise.
A separate list for the microfilm collected by the New York State
Newspaper Project (one file for each county) may be found at
and John Fuller's ``Genealogy Resources on Internet'':
The original genealogy mailing list, ROOTS-L, is also run on
rootsweb.com. Take a look at the rootsweb web page for more
information: