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View Full Version : What email address to use for GENEALOGY



Leonard212
08-07-2008, 9:28 PM
Hello everyone
For Genealogy correspondence only...............keep a constant email.
I would like to make a suggestion regarding the use of internet provider and work email addresses for genealogy. Don't use them they change when you change jobs or your internet provider service and you are lost forever.

In the last 3 years I have experienced great frustration |banghead| when after years of searching I finally find someone on the internet with common ancestors or research only to have their email bounce back. Only yesterday I found a listing in B-G and their "bigpond" email address is no longer valid.

I would like to suggest people use a generic free provider for all genealogy contact as it never changes. Then in ten or twenty years time someone can still contact you. Also you have no trouble connecting to these when overseas etc.
There are lots of ones you can use YAHOO, GMAIL, HOTMAIL, etc etc

Just a thought
************************************************** ************************************************** *
PS
It is easy and if you use Gmail the spam filter is fantastic and you never !! get any spam.
set up [email protected] ( use what you like or same as current )
go to options and set up forward all mail to
yourname@my_current_email_address

People can now send emails to the gmail account ( on public display and in all internet postings etc) and it is automatically sent to your current email address, which is hidden from them. Also if you stop having an internet provider you can still use the Gmail account in years to come from public terminals or the library etc.
Gmail also keeps a copy of all mail which passes through on its way to your current email address.

If you change your email address in the future, just go into your Gmail account and change the forwarding address and you are up and going again instantly.

This means the Gmail account will always be active and never change and you can even refer back to it if you have lost genealogy data etc.

Give it a go it is easy and a really good idea, I always advise people to have a generic account. It is hidden out of site and no one even knows it is there.

Mutley
08-07-2008, 9:38 PM
Good idea,
but if someone wishes to contact me in 20 years time, I think it could be
[email protected]
Wonder what the spammers will do with that :D

Jan1954
08-07-2008, 9:41 PM
It is as much as I can do to remember the one email address... http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Jan_07/shrug.gif

Now way can I change it now!

Dorset Girl
08-07-2008, 11:46 PM
I use the G one for anything to do with Genealogy - if the correspondence turns out to be long term then I switch them to my provider (that way if I change providers and forget to tell them they still have the G address! It seems to work well as any spam in the G account is automatically shunted into a separate file - I don't even have to check it unless I'm bored!! (how much time do we get for that!)

Leonard212
09-07-2008, 3:12 AM
Hello Jan1954
It is easy and if you use Gmail the spam filter is fantastic and you never !! get any spam.
set up [email protected] ( use what you like or same as current )
go to options and set up forward all mail to
Jan1954@my_current_email_address

People can now send email to the gmail account ( on public display and in all internet postings etc) and it is automatically sent to your current address, which is hidden from them. If you stop having an internet provider you can still use the Gmail account in years to come from public terminals or the library etc.
Gmail also keeps a copy of all mail which passes through on its way to your current address.

If you change your email address just go into your Gmail account and change the forwarding address and you are up and going again instantly.

This means the Gamil account will always be active and never change and you can even refer back to it if you have lost genealogy data etc.

Give it a go it is easy and a really good idea, I always advise people to have a generic account. It is hidden out of site and no one even knows it is there.

Best of luck with it Leonard212
************************************************** ******

It is as much as I can do to remember the one email address... http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee187/Jan_07/shrug.gif

Now way can I change it now!

Ed McKie
09-07-2008, 4:06 AM
Good idea,
but if someone wishes to contact me in 20 years time, I think it could be
[email protected]
Wonder what the spammers will do with that :D
Heavens to Murgatroyd, Mutley!!

I wish I could be as confident of the paradise destination when I pop my clogs :0(

cheers..ed

Waitabit
09-07-2008, 5:29 AM
I wanna share Mutleys email addy, I have lots of contacts there helping me with my research.


|angel|

keith9351
09-07-2008, 8:17 AM
I seem to remember when Gmail was launched in the UK there was Privacy issues, I think they were scanning all e-mails incoming as well as outgoing.

Have just looked on Wikipedia and they still have privacy issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail

"Google automatically scans e-mails to add context-sensitive advertisements to them".

"Google is technically able to cross-reference cookies across its information-rich product line to make dossiers on individuals".

Keith

MarkJ
09-07-2008, 8:56 AM
I seem to remember when Gmail was launched in the UK there was Privacy issues, I think they were scanning all e-mails incoming as well as outgoing.

Have just looked on Wikipedia and they still have privacy issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail

"Google automatically scans e-mails to add context-sensitive advertisements to them".

"Google is technically able to cross-reference cookies across its information-rich product line to make dossiers on individuals".

Keith

The same thing applies with ANY email account - be that Gmail, Hotmail or your own ISP based email.
Gmail does include context sensitive ads as you say Keith, but Hotmail, Yahoo etc all add their own little ads - not context sensitive admittedly. According to Google, they use some automated tools to pick up key words to use for the ad context, rahter than some poor person having to scan all the mails!

Every email you send - by ISP or whoever - is logged somewhere. Your ISP keeps your old emails for a period of time and, upon request by a suitable agency (e.g MI5, the CIA ...) will, in most cases, happily hand them over. A few ISPs tend to refuse unless compelled by the courts.

The answer - if you really are worried about others reading your mail - is to use encryption.Trouble is that encryption itself causes problems for less "techie" users.

Remember - the internet is not a secure medium. There are ways to improve security - the "https" thing you see (with the padlock) when accessing your bank website or paying for something online, is pretty secure, but normal traffic, including emails, does not use that sort of security.

I use gmail for much of my day to day email, I have an old old Hotmail account which I rarely use for anything, I have an email address from my ISP and I also run my own mail server for my email. My own server emails use a digital signature - which I can turn off for less technical contacts for example - which proves the email was actually sent by me and not a "pretend MarkJ". It also allows me to actually physically encrypt emails should I feel the need to do so - e.g highly sensitive documents. If that was intercepted by a third party, it would be almost impossible to decrypt and read.

Mark

PS - Google, Hotmail and other search engines already compile a "dossier" on your searches. This is partly what this "cookie" business is all about. Turning off cookies - or at least deleting them after a browsing session helps you to maintain a degree of anonymity, but creates its own problems.
There is no such thing as anonymity on the interwebby. Only degrees of how easily you can be tracked.

Edit: Don't let the ramble above put you off using the web! For most people, none of this is relevant or very important. You are always being tracked if you live in the UK - be that by your credit card company looking at your purchases, store loyalty cards, the pesky CCTV cameras all over the place or any one of thousands of other ways.

Ladkyis
09-07-2008, 9:04 AM
email and privacy are not compatible, so if you don't want it known don't write it on the intarwebby it will be kept somewhere.

keith9351
09-07-2008, 12:35 PM
Mark
I understand what your saying, I just fill safer with some e-mail providers than others. I tend to use different providers for banking, forums, etc and hotmail for people I don't know but want to exchange info with, although I never put anything in e-mails that's private. I just object to anyone being able to read it.

I have been trying to block cookies for the last month using firefox (ask me every time option) and that appears to be working although when my daughter uses facebook it somehow sets up a profile with ad cookies in there.

I must admit I have no problem with CCTV cameras, but credit card company who phone and query some purchases but last year couldn't pick up that I was shopping in Essex and made half a dozen cash withdrawals around Melbourne, yes the one in Australia around the same time left me amazed.

Keith

MarkJ
09-07-2008, 1:02 PM
Sounds like AdBlock may be what you need there Keith. Easy to use with Firefox and does exactly what it says on the tin! The ones which do get through, you can select and block for future browsing. Must admit to not being a "Social Networking" user myself, but I can't see why AdBlock wouldn't work there. The basis of AdBlock is the good old Hosts file method which we all used to use in the old days to stop ads appearing and stop the cookie tracking brigade.
I also use NoScript, but I think that is perhaps a bit complicated for general users. Whilst it works fine, you do need to remember to allow scripts on certain pages - online payments particularly - or things don't work as you would expect!

With all those in place, I simply get Firefox to delete cookies when I close the browser, rather than having it ask each time (which I found a bit tedious - although it is probably the better option!)

Mark

Lindad
09-07-2008, 2:40 PM
I've used a specific Gmail address for all my genealogy stuff for the last couple of years - and would thoroughly recommend it.

'My' tree includes the combined efforts of my cousin and myself and is actually our two trees combined. I send and receive as many emails about his side as about my own, if not more! I was forever forwarding messages to him... but now we share a Gmail address and we can both log in, read and respond to the messages that are relevant to us.

Gmail also uses a great 'label' system (much better than folders) so it's really easy to keep track of what messages you have had about which family names. With folders you have to choose one to file your message in, regardless of whether the message is about one single topic or 20. With Gmail you can tag your message with as many labels as you like. I've got a label set up for every name represented in our tree and then just tag accordingly.

I have wireless broadband and when my laptop is switched on, I am always online. I therefore read and answer all my emails whilst online - and am happy to cope with the fact that when I'm away from home (and not in a hotspot!) then I cannot access previously received messages. With Gmail you can arrange for them all to be diverted to Outlook (or whatever package you use) - but I've lost so many useful messages in the past when having hard-drive problems or buying a new computer that I'm very happy to have Google store all my messages for as long as I want to keep them.

Yes, Gmail does electronically scan your messages so that they can display relevant advertising on your pages. I am not at all bothered by this (it's not as if they've got a team of people sitting there reading all my messages) - and sometimes the ads that they have identified as being relevant cause me huge amusement! ;)

Personally, I wouldn't use any other system now.

keith9351
09-07-2008, 3:36 PM
Mark
I use AdBlock, I think it was you who put me on to it and what a great program. I don't use "Social Networking" myself but like I said my daughter when she comes round uses it. When I run AVG afterwards there is a firefox/profile file with ads cookie lurking, when I tell AVG to remove this file it warns that it could damage the computer. I do remove it and haven't had any problems yet.

This past month I've blocked cookies (it was a bit of a pain the first few day but soon found the best way to use it) I'm amazed how many are trying to load on to my computer, some times 5 -6 while a front page is loading.

Keith

spiderboy
10-07-2008, 2:06 PM
On a cautionary note - whereas I agree Gmail is very good, the system for spam is not infallible. It is probably worth checking before deleting them all. I have found "good" emails (not many it's true) in the spam folder.
Spiderboy.

Dorset Girl
10-07-2008, 3:06 PM
Extremely good point Spiderboy!!! I have just found one from B-G in there!! Fortunately I usually glance through first so it got remarked as non junk.
Used my magic wand!
Marion

MarkJ
10-07-2008, 3:15 PM
It is always a good idea to check your spambox before deleting, whether you use Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or your own ISPs mail system. Just as the occasional spam sneaks through, so will the odd normal mail be incorrectly identified as spam.

Mark

Ed McKie
12-07-2008, 4:20 AM
It is always a good idea to check your spambox before deleting, whether you use Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or your own ISPs mail system. Just as the occasional spam sneaks through, so will the odd normal mail be incorrectly identified as spam.

Mark
I know we have wandered off the original thread :-)
But if you are going to check the spam box in case the spam filter doesnt work- then you may as well turn off the spam filter as I do, and delete the spam yourself. Most of it is not difficult to spot and it only takes a second or two. Of course if you are really pressed for time as you are getting on a bit then ............:-) But I still havent worked out who told the world and his wife that I need viagra !!!

cheers..Ed

ash33au
12-07-2008, 6:09 AM
It was one of the first things I did... if it's someone I know personally I'll generally use my isp provided email for most correspondence. However I have a free email account that i use for everything else to do with Genie stuff.

Red Kite
29-04-2009, 3:33 PM
From time to time I email my gedcoms and anything else important to myself using gmail. As gmail keeps copies indefinitely, it's another way of backing up.

Erlang
12-07-2009, 4:07 PM
I have multiple emails for different things, work, family junkmail, etc.

So it was inevitable I would sort out a genealogical email.

I bought (subscribe) my own email from a domain/webhost. Many are available and advertise in computer magazines, most domains cost very little, a few pounds a year at most.

For family history I use a .name domain. the name I wanted (Sayers) wasn't available but by adding -uk to it made it unique. My domain provider one of the major European ones and gives me 99 email accounts on that domain.