Hello & Welcome!
My Name is Carolyn Flowers Tucker.
I am the Gratiot Prison Board Adminisrator.
I have ancestors who fought on both sides of the Civil War, uncles & cousins who fought brother against brother, father against son.
Please email me with any questions or problems about the messages posted here. Thanks!
carolynftucker@yahoo.com
I hope the following info will be helpful to you.
Using a MESSAGE BOARD
Posting queries on a RootsWeb/Ancestry
Message Boards is an excellent way to find others who are researching the same or connecting families, and who may have information you seek.
Today's online researchers are busy people,
so make sure that your messages are easy to locate and understood.
To accomplish this make proper use of the SUBJECT line,
SURNAME box, and
CLASSIFICATION menu when you post.
SUBJECT LINE:
Make the subject complete, concise, and specific in describing the content of your message.
PLEASE Do not use vague subjects such as
"genealogy," "searching," or
"looking for grandfather."
It is assumed that anyone posting or reading these Message Boards is searching for genealogy-related information.
Put yourself in the place of someone scanning through hundreds of posts on the Message Boards.
Does your SUBJECT LINE identify the content of your query? "Seek parents of John Kelly, born 1842, Clay County, Kentucky" is good.
A SUBJECT LINE can contain up to 53 characters, including spaces.
If you are posting information
(data as opposed to a query), make the
SUBJECT LINE:
"Will of James Smith probated 1873, Bell County, Texas" or "Obituary of Mary (Curran) Murphy, died May 1901, Dublin, Ireland."
Women's maiden names are commonly put in parentheses to identify them.
Remember Message Boards are read and used by researchers around the world, so identify your ancestors and data, watch those abbreviations, and don't assume everyone knows where or what SF, CA is. Let there be no doubt, spell it out.
SURNAME BOX ENTRIES:
*~*~Enter ONLY the surnames
that you have included in the message
you have posted in this box.~*~*
Do NOT include a bunch of surnames just because you are researching them.
List surnames one at a time and separate them with a comma.
Example: Smith, Cousins, James, Kohlhammer, Van Allen, de la Croix, Wood, Woods. Whether you list the names in upper, lower, or mixed case is not important.
Surnames that have common spelling variants such as Wood and Woods should be listed separately and NOT as: Wood(s) or Wood/Woods.
The search engine will not pick them up correctly if they are shown in the latter two styles.
The purpose of the SURNAME BOX entries is to enable Message Board searchers to use the ADVANCED SEARCH option and search ONLY on the names you have listed in the box indicating that they are surnames.
It eliminates from searches words appearing elsewhere in a post (but not listed in the SURNAME BOX) such as the poster's name (Sally Smith may have posted numerous messages on the board and signed them with her full name in the message body), a common word (such as Cousins above), or given name (such as James above).
*~Do not enter anything other than surnames in the SURNAME BOX. ~*
Do not enter any given (first) names or locations, and do not use descriptive words such as and, many more, Jr., or "etc."
Avoid all punctuation (except for commas, which are used to form the separation between each surname entry) unless it is a part of a surname.
CLASSIFICATION:
The purpose of proper classification of messages is to enable Message Board users to view and/or search messages by data type.
If you are posting a query or replying to a query, use the default classification of QUERY from the drop-down menu.
If you are posting actual data, select the type that most closely matches the type of information you are posting:
BIBLE, CEMETERY, WILL, DEED,PENSION, MARRIAGE, BIOGRAPHY, etc. (These are all listed under MESSAGE TYPE).
If you post a QUESTION about a document, such as a deed or a marriage record, or if you request a lookup, it is classified as a QUERY -- not as a DEED, MARRIAGE, or LOOKUP.
**~~Only TRANSCRIBED DATA are classified as one of the data types.~~**
Previously published in
RootsWeb Review: Vol. 5, No. 30, 24 July 2002
Confederate POWs and Prisons in St. Louis
Civil War Prisons in Missouri
Gratiot Prison Look Ups
A Wealth of Links!~ incl. Gratiot Prison Lists!