B-L Greetings/Guidelines

BLANCHARD Mail List at RootsWeb
Greetings/Guidelines
sent to all New List Members

Hi recent new subscriber –

Note: The old G/G for this list has been modified here to conform with list name and procedure
changes made by RootsWeb when they adopted new software for their e-mail list server.

We are glad to have you join us on the BLANCHARD List and welcome to our List. I'm sending a brief hello
along with some information including how to retrieve messages that have already been posted to the List.
This will allow you to catch up. Please let me know your name and any other information you wish to share -
hometown, mail address, phone number, so I can add them to my BLANCHARD subscriber datasheet.
We no longer publish this information on the List, but it is useful in case we need to contact a member
whose e-mail address is no longer active. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

I will also include information about a few guidelines that we have adopted for the List.
Sorry to make this so long. You will at least have the information if you need to use it.

Fletcher Blanchard
P.O. Box 668
Northville, NY 12134-0668 USA
518-863-6289
e-mail: [email protected]

- - - - - -- - -

Greetings Subscribers!

Some of you have already met me through earlier e-mail contacts or through my Web Page, but
I'd like to introduce myself to others and talk briefly about the List.

I became actively interested in genealogy in 1992 but have thought about it much longer.
After retirement in upstate New York, converting our Adirondack 'camp' into a year-round
home, and developing the soil in an old hay field for our organic gardens, it seemed like
the right time to pore over the bundle of notes that my father prepared c1916 in an attempt
to locate his BLANCHARD ancestors. Much of the data came from information in the New York
State Library and though it was rather sketchy, it served for many years as a constant
reminder that I should take up the task and attempt to organize these notes. Since my father
died when I was 10, I had little inclination or opportunity to discuss our ancestors with him.

Well, that's my introduction to family history. I have one link to document in order to
establish that Thomas BLANCHARD (c1585-1654) is the progenitor of my line in America.
Thomas came from England on the Jonathan to Boston, MA (Charlestown) in 1639.
Joseph BLANCHARD, said to be the brother of Thomas, came to Boston in 1637 and died
soon after. As a result of our BLANCHARD DNA Project, we now know it is highly unlikely
that Thomas and Joseph have a common ancestor within a reasonable genealogical time frame.
I have developed contacts with many of the descendants of these two immigrant ancestors.

My presumed line is: Thomas > George > George > William > Abner ?>? Asahel >
Charles Henry > Melvin Augustus > Fletcher James > Fletcher Augustus > FABJr (Yours truly).

This List started on 20 June 1996 as the BLANCHARD Family Discussion List (BFDL) and was one
of the many family and regional genealogy lists that Larry Stephens maintained at RmGate,
Indiana Univ. Later, it became the BLANCHARD Family Genealogy List (BFGL) and in May, 1997,
we moved to RootsWeb, under the direction of Brian Leverich and Karen Isaacson, where we
became BLANCHARD-L. RootsWeb has recently dropped the “-L” designation on most of their
lists so we are officially the BLANCHARD Mail List at RootsWeb.

The BLANCHARD List is by no means confined to the descendants of Thomas and Joseph
BLANCHARD but this served as a starter group to get the List rolling in order to exchange
information on all BLANCHARD (and name variant) lines.

So that we can get acquainted and understand the range of your interests, I request that
you post a message to the List outlining the BLANCHARD lines that you are researching.
Please give sufficient time frames and locations so we all get a clear picture of your studies.
With this as a background, feel free to jump in with queries, suggestions, sources, stories,
etc. Let's hope this List will help us fill in some of the gaps in our family histories.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

To all SUBSCRIBERS:

Please read this message and keep a copy of it handy when you post
to the BLANCHARD List, view the BLANCHARD Web Page, search archived
messages at RootsWeb, or search the BLANCHARD Board at RootsWeb.

********************************************************************

BLANCHARD     A Family Genealogy List: Guidelines

Part I. Surname Mail Lists
Part II. Archived Files
Part III. BLANCHARD Web Page
Part IV. BLANCHARD Message Board at RootsWeb/Ancestry
Part V. Message Content / Subject Lines
Part VI. BLANCHARD DNA Project

I. Surname Mail Lists

A. Finding and Joining a Surname List
1. List of Lists – Information available from RootsWeb.
All the User Mailing Lists hosted by RootsWeb can be found at the following website:
http://lists.rootsweb.com/

Over 30,000 Surnames, Localities, and 'Other' subject-related lists are indexed.
For example, from this page you can determine if there is a particular surname list
at RootsWeb. In the Surnames block, select the first letter of the surname and scroll
through the names. Use the information provided to subscribe or un-subscribe to any list.
Or, you can enter your request directly from your e-mail program. Send e-mail to
[email protected] , where LISTNAME is the SURNAME. Enter
subscribe in the Subject: line and subscribe in the message body, nothing more
and you will be subscribed in ‘mail mode”. When you have been notified that you have
been added to the Subscriber list, you can post messages by sending them to
[email protected] .

The new mail server at RootsWeb does not allow you to subscribe to both ‘mailmode’
and ‘digest mode’ using the same e-mail address. In ‘mail mode’, you receive a copy
of each individual message that is posted to the list. In ‘digest mode’, you
periodically receive a collection of messages posted to the list where the number of
messages varies and depends on the size of the individual messages and the number of
messages posted in a certain time interval.

If you prefer to be subscribed in ‘digest mode’, using your same e-mail address, you must
first unsubscribe from the List ‘mail mode’ and then subscribe to ‘digest mode’ by sending
e-mail to [email protected] with Subject: subscribe and subscribe in the
message body, nothing more. If you know before hand that you prefer to use ‘digest mode’,
then use the above subscribe procedure when you first subscribe.

Note: For now, the new ‘Mailman’ mail server at RootsWeb allows you to use BLANCHARD-L
as well as BLANCHARD in your address for messages posted to the List.
2. John Fuller’s Page.
Another source of Mail List information is John Fuller's page, Genealogy Resources on the Internet at:
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail.html

Scroll to SURNAMES and use the Index to locate the name of interest.

II. Archived Files

All messages posted to the BLANCHARD Mail List, since its beginning in June 1996,
are archived in two forms: Regular Archives and Threaded Archives.
A. Regular Archive Search
Enter the web address for the ‘regular’ Archive Search:
http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl?list=BLANCHARD
* Select the year (1996 -2006). You can only search one year at a time.
* Enter the keyword(s) for your Query
* Click “Search”
All messages containing your keyword(s) will be returned. A typical ‘return” is:
Match Number: 3 of 8
Score: 50
Headline Field [SUBJECT]: Obit. of Vernon Blanchard
Select: [Full] [FROM] [TO] [MESSAGE-ID] [SUBJECT] [CONTENT-TYPE] [MESSAGE-BODY]
You can select the portion of the message you want to view or select “Full” to read the entire message including headers.

Sample Queries. All keywords are case-insensitive.

Single word. Enter one word such as Blanchard, Killingly, Amaziah, Thankful …..

Multiple word.
“Thomas Blanchard” (quotes required) returns messages containing the search
string “Thomas Blanchard”

Thomas&Blanchard or Thomas+Blanchard will also return messages containing
the words in the given order.

Thomas AND Blanchard, will return all messages where the name Thomas and the name
Blanchard appear somewhere in the message, but not necessarily as consecutive words.

Thomas OR Blanchard will return messages where either word appears.

These example can, of course, be extended to other word combinations; place names, events, etc.

Header Line Searches

To search for words in the Subject: line, use Subject/Amaziah , for example.

To search for dates, entering date/6 May 1998 will not return messages posted on that date.
You must use “6 May 1998” as your query string, but be aware that this will return all messages
with 6 May, 16 May or 26 May appearing anywhere in the message, not only in the Date: field!
Also, be sure to abbreviate month names exactly as they appear in the Date: field - ex. Jul for July.

Note: These are just a few examples of how to perform searches in the RootsWeb Archives. CNIDR's ISEARCH
software is used by the RootsWeb search engine and for more information about its capabilities, you might want
to visit the page that John Robertson has prepared at: http://jrshelby.com/rfotw/rwsearch.htm .
B. Threaded Archive Search
The Threaded Archive Search page can be found at: https://lists.rootsweb.com/hyperkitty/th/index/BLANCHARD

The page is an index to all BLANCHARD messages, arranged by month and year (with the number of messages)
from June 1996 to the present. Clicking a certain month/year will display all messages for that
period. Messages that are threaded (have a common Subject:)are grouped. Clicking on a message
displays the contents of the message and links to the threaded messages can be found at the bottom
of the page.

III. BLANCHARD Web Page

You can access the Databases and other useful resources that have been provided for the use of BLANCHARD List members,
on our Web Page at RootsWeb:   http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~blanch-l/blpref.html

Databases available:
Descendants of "Joseph" and Ann BLANCHARD, by Pat BLANCHARD CURRY
Descendants of George BLANCHARD, eldest son of Thomas, by Pat BLANCHARD CURRY
Descendants of Joseph BLANCHARD and Thomas BLANCHARD, by John F. CHANDLER
Links to two other database are also available:

Descendants of Azariel BLANCHARD, g.g.grandson of the immigrant Thomas BLANCHARD through his son George.
Descendants of Aaron BLANCHARD, descendant of the immigrant Thomas through his son Samuel.

If you have any general questions or comments about these databases, please post them to the BLANCHARD List.

New databases will be added as they become available.

IV. BLANCHARD Message Board at RootsWeb/Ancestry

The BLANCHARD Board at:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=surnames.blanchard
consists of 15 different message types including Query, Biography, Birth, Census, Death, etc.
and can be listed by Thread (collapsed or expanded) or by Date (collapsed or expanded).

A search engine is provided to search all the board types. Also, from the main page, there are
links to other Boards and Surname Lists at RootsWeb.

To post a message, take the “Post New Message” link.

Posts to the BLANCHARD Board are not automatically “gatewayed” to the BLANCHARD Mail List
so these two operate somewhat independently. I manage both the Mail List and the Board at RootsWeb.
Help with using the various Boards can be found at the RootsWeb Help Desk:
https://support.rootsweb.com/    (under Message Boards)

V. Message Content / Subject Lines.

The BLANCHARD List is intended for the exchange of genealogical information by researchers interested
in any and all BLANCHARDs (or name variants). If message content is of a personal nature, you might
want to correspond directly with an individual rather than posting to the List. Remember that all
messages are archived so excessive ‘quoting’ of previous messages only wastes archive space.

Subject Lines.
It is important to enter an appropriate Subject Line on each message so that the reader/searcher
knows the message content and the message can be archived/threaded effectively.

In a Reply, use the same Subject line as found in the original post. Try not to raise a new subject
in a Reply, but put it in a separate message.

VI. BLANCHARD DNA Project

The BLANCHARD DNA Project is associated with the BLANCHARD List and was initiated on 1 Apr 2002
as one of the Surname Project Groups at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) our test lab in Houston, TX.
John Chandler is the Group Administrator and web page manager.

If you are interested in the project and would like to participate, I suggest you visit the
Project Web Page at:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~blanch-l/bldna.html

The page includes an Introduction to DNA analysis for genealogy, How it Works, a Project Timeline,
Notes and Discussion pertaining to the several identified BLANCHARD branches, and test results
presented in a series of Tables. The page can also be accessed from within the BLANCHARD
main web page.

As of November, 2006, the Project has collected and reported data for 9 distinct BLANCHARD
(and name variant) branches, with 85 members.

- - - - - -

Thanks for your cooperation. I think we can follow a few guidelines and still maintain a sense
of informality on the List. Some of this information should expand what you can achieve by being a
member of the BLANCHARD Mail List and will introduce you to a few of the other services offered
by RootsWeb. The BLANCHARD List was a long time supporter of RootsWeb before the merger with Ancestry
and as a result, we have little or no advertising on our List and pages.

Thanks also for wading through all this and for your participation!

    Fletch     27 November 2006 update

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