Announcing the BLANCHARD Family Discussion List

THE BLANCHARD-L GROUP
Fletcher Blanchard, of Northville, Saratoga, NY, USA, known as Fletch, is the "owner" of this list but he considers himself more of a "manager", responsible for keeping it running smoothly, for passing along information on how it works, and for setting some guidelines for its operation.

From Rmgate to RootsWeb

The one-year anniversary of the list (known as BFGL, at Rmgate, with many thanks to going to Larry Stephens) was in June 1997. There is a wonderful bunch of people who are courteous, congenial, helpful, and interested in having you join them. They may not be of your lineage but may hve material to help you in your research. If differences of opinion or hurt feelings should occur as a result of list participation, please deal with the individual involved by personal e-mail rather than "flame" the list. (Sometimes one's expressions have a different meaning to others) As described below, this is a Family Genealogy Discussion List, so please confine your remarks to related Genealogy/History topics.

It has been noted that many areas carry contrary information to what you may have. Many would like to have these problems settled through collective research.

Your mail program may be capable of sending attached files (attachments) but send any attachments to the list. Because of the wide variations in characteristics of mail programs and servers, attachments can cause serious problems. Make arrangements with to exchange messages as attachments if it is necessary to use this procedure for long or specially formatted messages like Gedcoms, graphics, data tables or charts, etc. (Your message is of no use to others if they do not have an understanding of how it is sent.) You can usually copy/paste text at the end of an e-mail message where it will appear "appended" to the original message. If the message is extremely long, it may be divided into a number of pieces by the mail server and sent separately but you can recover the pieces, remove the headers, and reform the original message.

What this List (is) and (is not)

1. This is a discussion area for anyone who has an interest in genealogy and history (as it relates to genealogy) of the BLANCHARD (and all variant spellings) surname. More than 30 variants of this name have been identified so if you are interested in BLANCHER, BLANCHAR, BLANSHARD, BLENSHARDE, etc., this may be a list for you!
2. John Fuller maintains a web site called "Genealogy Resources on the Internet" and his list of genealogy-related mail lists can be found at: http://users.aol.com/johnf14246/gen_mail.html
All the lists at rootsweb can be found at
http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/lists.html
and most of their genealogy/history lists are also on John's page.

3. BLANCHARD-L is an un-moderated list. All messages posted to the list are broadcast to all of its subscribers with no moderator appointed to filter out objectionable or undesirable messages. This means that the listowner and members must join together to assure that the list serves its members and that all parties treat each other with respect, courtesy, and understanding. Any expressions of displeasure with the list should be directed to me, as manager: fab@klink.net

Although you will automatically receive all messages posted to BLANCHARD-L, you . If you find a message is offensive or disturbing in some way, just delete it or respond to the author and work out any differences you may have. Use your best judgment about whether to post replies to the entire list or to selected members.

Some Procedures

1. How to subscribe
Rootsweb uses the SmartList software for its lists. There are (currently) two ways to subscribe to a list.
a. To subscribe to this list for MAIL (each message will be received individually):
Send a message to BLANCHARD-L-REQUEST@rootsweb.com
with SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
b. To subscribe to this list for DIGEST (each message received will consist of a group of individual messages, bundled together for convenience):
Send a message to BLANCHARD-D-REQUEST@rootsweb.com
with SUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. (Note the difference in the addresses)
If you need to turn your mail off for a short time (vacation ?), you must UNSUBSCRIBE and then SUBSCRIBE.

2. Posting a message to the List
All messages posted to the list should go to BLANCHARD-L@rootsweb.com
These messages are then posted to BLANCHARD-L and BLANCHARD-D.
[Requests such as sub and unsub go to this address; they should only be sent to the -REQUEST addresses!]

BLANCHARD-L is an "open" list. This means that anyone can post messages to the list but to receive messages, you must be subscribed. I see no reason to change this; we only had a few cases of "outside" messages at rmgate.

After joining the group, it could be most helpful to introduce yourself as others may have the same research area and/or lineage. If your first message included: 1. a brief introduction and your location 2. your research interest, and 3. if possible, a brief lineage description, you may meet a "distant" cousin with information.

"Signatures" are great for personal messages but in one aspect, you will be sending yourself the same message and adding to the size of message needlessly, so it is hoped that you could refrain from this feature. (Thanking you in advance) When sending messages to the Group, some have used initials of their name and location along with their name and location the first couple of postings until familiarity is noted. The "signature" then can be as brief as the initials but occasionally both (initials and names) are used so new members can become accustomed to who they are 'listening' to.
Example: RNBU = (R)annie (N). (B)lanchard, Mount (U)niacke, NS

Need help with BLANCHARD_L ?

Contact Fletch at his e-mail address: fab@klink.net
Describe the problem you are having, how it occurred and what happened to make you think you had a problem. Include any error messages received. Error messages from Rootsweb will usually tell you what the error is. If he can't answer your question, he'll try to find an expert to help you. - Fletch (and Rannie)