Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

(+) Manuscript Collections by Lloyd Bockstruck

Manuscript collections are underutilized in genealogical research. Most of them were created in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by genealogists who specialized in a locality. Because of  the widespread availability of research guides and on-line finding aids, manuscript collections deserve to be used much more than they are.

Read the Plus Edition Newsletter Online

Every week I send a copy of the Plus Edition of this newsletter via e-mail to every Plus Edition subscriber. The e-mail is usually sent on Sunday evenings although occasionally it may be delayed a day or two when I am traveling.

The biggest headache of sending all those Plus Edition newsletters is spam filters. The newsletters are sent via bulk mail. Quite a few e-mail providers will delete large bulk mail messages, such as the Plus Edition newsletter. Some of them do not even place it in a spam folder; they simply delete it completely without leaving a trace.

I estimate that perhaps 10% of the e-mail newsletters never get delivered. Judging by recent feedback from subscribers, I also suspect that percentage is increasing.