GenServ - GENPOSTAL How to Send a GEDCOM via Post Mail 1 August 1997 The latest version of this file may be obtained anytime by sending any message (even a blank one) to: genpostal@genserv.com. You may submit a GEDCOM file for GenServ via the postal service. The file must be sent on a 3.5 inch high or low density floppy disk (in a diskette mailer) as either an ASCII file or compressed with PKZIP, in MSDOS format. Apple Macintosh users should use Apple File Exchange or an equivalent utility to produce MSDOS-compatible floppy disks. Please test read the diskette on a DOS system before mailing it (if possible.) * Diskettes will not be returned to the sender. * Do Not put staples in checks * If name of subscriber is not on check, please put it. * Make sure you actually copied the file onto the diskette: do a "directory" on that diskette before sending it. * Put your email address on the diskette label before you seal up the mailer. * Please do not write-protect the diskette. * Include in the diskette mailer a piece of paper on which you have TYPED your EMAIL ADDRESS, postal street address, city, state, zip, country, and your telephone number in email message to: ADMIN@genserv.com * My APO address is a USA postal address * Please read that again carefully: we need your diskette and an information sheet. I receive diskettes every week and packages which do not contain an email address. Do not be one of those. ! ! ! ! Because your email address is your key to using GenServ, this information must be clearly typed. If you don't include it, or it isn't legible, you can't be given access to the system. On the day you mail your diskette, send an email Cliff Manis or Jon Rees saying that you have mailed the diskette. This serves as a confirmation for your email address. Your email address is critical to the whole process. Without it, we cannot contact you to give you access nor can others contact you if they wish to share data. Your only contact with GenServ is via email. If you do not have an email address, you will not be able to use the GenServ System. Whenever you request reports from GenServ in the future, they will be sent only to the email address on file. If your database contains over 30,000 surnames, please contact Cliff Manis for special instructions for sending it to the GenServ system. The system already has a few databases containing over 50,000 names each. Your database will not be too large for us to load. Those living in Europe should send their database to Jon Rees in England (see address below). All others should send it to Cliff Manis (who is currently living in Seoul, Korea). You may send your annual $12 (US) subscription in the same diskette mailer. See postal address below. That address will be valid until June 1998. (see SPECIAL below) NEW USER SPECIAL: If you send your annual subscription in the same envelope as the GEDCOM date diskette via postal mail you will receive 15 (fifteen) months of GenServ access after your datafile is accepted. Cliff's U.S. postal address will be valid through at least June 1998. A letter to him requires the same postage as any letter to the United States; it is a USA address. ========================================= Cliff Manis HHC, 18th MEDCOM P. O. Box 579 APO AP 96205 USA or Jon Rees Church Cottage, Ringsfield, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 8JU UK * Email: ADMIN@genserv.com We cannot correct or edit a GEDCOM file which does not load here. We cannot make corrections to your data. Please do not send the data files from your genealogy program. These are not GEDCOM files. If you do not know what a GEDCOM file is, then please go to the home page and click on the word GEDCOM. There is an explanation of the file. All of the recently released genealogy programs will export a GEDCOM file. If yours will not, then you should seriously consider updating the program. All of the directions for preparing a GEDCOM file for GenServ are in the geninfo file. It is especially important that you export a GEDCOM for GenServ as if you were exporting it for PAF using the MS-DOS or IBM character set. If you are using a Mac computer, please tell us when you send the file. As friendly as the Mac is, it is still different and we must process the files a bit differently. We will find out that we have a Mac file when it crashes, but it's better if we know first. Here's a quick review-use it as a checklist: (Please accept this as an effort to briefly restate the above) 1. Read all this file Read the GenServ-doc file 2. Export your GEDCOM according to the specifications in the geninfo file 3. Test the GEDCOM using one of the software programs listed in the geninfo file 4. Copy the GEDCOM to a 3.5 diskette - high or low capacity. Check it to be sure the file is on the diskette. 5. Include a separate TYPED message with your name, address, email address. 6. Put the diskette and the information sheet in the mailer and send to Cliff or Jon. 7. At the same time, send an email message to Cliff or Jon saying that you have mailed the diskette and send your contact information again. Be patient. You will hear from us usually within three weeks; after four weeks, please write and ask about it. GenServ "Genealogical Server" a service for making GEDCOM data available. Send any message to the addresses below to request these files: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- geninfo@GenServ.com - Latest info about GenServ genhow2@GenServ.com - How to format requests genrpts@GenServ.com - Sample reports gedmake@GenServ.com - GEDCOM file? How to make? genem@GenServ.com - How to send a GEDCOM email genftp@GenServ.com - How to send a GEDCOM ftp genpostal@GenServ.com - How to send a GEDCOM postal mail disclaimer@GenServ.com - GenServ Disclaimer The GenServ System home page on the World Wide Web at URL: http://www.genserv.com