My Morning Tech Routine

     "What's your Morning Tech Routine?" This topic was pointed out to geneabloggers over at Geniaus, who saw it at ReadWriteWeb.

     I sometimes say I'm addicted to email. I could easily survive without Facbook, but I don't know what I'd do without the ability to check my email throughout the day. In fact, I often start my day by checking my email. My cell phone is my alarm clock and once I turn off the alarm I often click over to check my email accounts.

      After my morning shower I head to my computer to re-check my email, usually followed twitter and blog posts. Once I'm caught up on personal happenings I check the news, usually the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website followed by CNN. I probably won't check Facebook or Google+ unless I have an email notification.  Depending on whether I have to open or close at work that day, I might try and read a chapter on my Kindle or start my day with some online genealogy research.

     The rest of my day is equally filled with tech. I can't imagine how different my day would be without all the technology we have today.

Craft Family in 1901

     While away on a genealogy day trip, I received an email about the very family I was looking for. Actually, the email was about the very grave I was looking for. I have some clues about the grave, but no exact location just yet. However, thanks to the email, I still came out good in the end.

     The woman who emailed me is a previously unknown second cousin, once removed. She has a private family tree online at ancestry.com. Included in her tree was the following photo (shown with permission). It show my Great-Great Grandparents, George Robert and Effie V (Powell) Craft and their four oldest children: Lillie Mae, Maurice Lamar, Bennie England and Claud Frank.  I love the house in the background, the hat in the yard and Effie's dress.






    I can recognize my Great-Grandfather, Bennie, 
the little boy on the far left from this photo that my 
Aunt gave me. My mom also pointed out that 
Bennie does look a lot like my dad.

Email Annoyance

   Before I begin this post, I should say two things: 1. I'm annoyed right now and might come off a little snippy and 2. This post does not pertain to anyone that I've had full, complete or meaningful communication with, are on a first name basis with, or anyone in the geneablogging community. Really, I just want to vent.

   In the course of online genealogy research, I've contacted many people by email that I have never met before. Because of this, I try and maintain a professional style of writing that is polite and well-written. I state my interest in their research and why I've contacted them. Without getting too long, I state my connection and a source or two. Then inform them of where they can find more of my research. Finally, I ask if they would be willing to share their information or to answer a particular question.  I want to present myself in the best way possible in order to encourage a response.

    Now, I'm not saying that I'm perfect by any means! I've communicated with many folks who are much better at writing and communication than I am and I'm sure I've made a few email bloopers myself. And I don't expect perfection from everyone either! I just expect people to express themselves in a polite way that facilitates mutual benefit for both individuals, and in a way that maintains genealogical standards (what's your source?).

   I posted at the beginning that I was annoyed while posting this. That's due to some emails I've been receiving that don't meet any sort of expected standards. Most of these emails have come via ancestry.com's message service and findagrave.com emails.  For example, this email that I received via ancestry.com:

Nina. my son in law's mother is the daughter . can you email *** at ***.

  In this case, I had to email back and apologize for having no idea what this email was about and ask which Nina the email was in reference to. I almost ignored this email entirely and wouldn't have blamed anyone else for doing so.  This is a great example to remind me to be clear and concise in all of my genealogy communications.

   Another example that I received via FindAGrave.com for a listing correction:

Plz add: b. 1898

   Sorry, but I don't think so. Now, I can kind of forgive composition of the email, considering that the sender is filling out a form. In the end though, why should I add this information? Where did it come from and what is the source? It wasn't on the headstone, or I would already have listed the information. If you tell me, "This was my Great-Grandfather and my research shows that he died in 1898, can you please add this to the listing?" I will gladly add the information. I can even transfer ownership of the listing to you.

   On their own, an email or two like this just makes me shake my head, but they seem to be increasing in frequency, which annoys me. At the same time, every email I receive like this reminds me of what not to do - so maybe I should appreciate these!

   Regardless, thanks for reading this and I hope it didn't come off preachy or mean. I'm just annoyed.

finally, a response

I posted on October 24th about an issue I was having with Ancestry.com Magazine and my subscription. I had contacted them to find out when my subscription started, because I wasn't sure if I had missed any issues. I was contacted over a month later (honestly, I'd forgotten I'd emailed them) and entered into a somewhat confusing and all together unhelpful email conversation with the subscriptions department.

The last email that I received from them stated that "it sounds like you have missed some issues." That's it, just that statement, no solution. So I emailed back, asking what they would do about it. I received no response. That was at the end of October.

I've been sending emails, probably bi-weekly since then, trying to get an answer. Yes, I could have called them, but this started in email and could be finished in the same format. About a month ago, I received an Ancestry.com magazine for February in the mail. It didn't contain a letter or any information, but I assume that this was their way of making up the "missed issues." Great customer service guys!

So, I kept emailing. After a while I was just sending emails such as "Hello, anyone there?" and "I just want a response." Finally, today, I received an email stating:

"You have been issued a refund for the missing subs and have been giving one year free for the magazines.

Ancestry Publishing Sales & Support
ancestry publishing"

I'm glad that someone finally responded - but where is the customer service (and spell checker)? An apology or explanation for why it took six months to get this finished.... oh, wait! It's not actually finish. My question was: when does my subscription expire. I still don't have a date.

This is Ancestry.com's idea of customer service.

This is a series of emails between Ancestry.com and myself. All I want to know is when my subscription to Ancestry Magazine started, so that I'll know if I missed any issues. I'm a little rude, yes, but this is how I get after having dealt with their customer service a few times in the past. I honestly don't know what to think at this point. Their Customer Service isn't worth anything.

1) ------

“a form has been submitted on July 28, 2008, via:

> > http://www.ancestrymagazine.com/talk-to-us/ [IP

> > 72.145.193.95]

SECOND REQUEST - I subscribed to your magazine at the beginning of June. I did not receive the July issue that is now available. I wanted to make sure that my subscription was processed so that I get all issues that I paid for. Can you let me know when my subscription began”

2) ------

From: "Ancestry Magazine - Subscriptions" <amsubscriptions@tgn.com>

Monday, October 13, 2008 6:51 PM

Valerie-

Will you confirm your address? Is it the same as the one listed below? We just wanted to double check to see if our records are correct and if so, we’ll move on from there.


Thanks

Jenny

Ancestry Publishing Sales & Support ancestry publishing

3) ------

From: Valerie

Sent: Monday, October 13, 2008 5:39 PM

To: Ancestry Magazine - Subscriptions

Subject: RE: A comment from a site visitor

Umm... I email this question Two And A Half months ago - Two Weeks after the first questions wasn't answered either.

But yes, this is the correct address and, btw, I am now receiving my magazines. Can you tell me when my subscription started so that I know if I missed any issues?

Thanks for finally getting around to responding...

-Valerie

4) -----

Valerie-

Your subscription started 02-28-2009.

Thanks

Jenny

Ancestry Publishing Sales & Support

ancestry publishing

5) -------

From: Valerie

Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 8:53 AM

To: Ancestry Magazine - Subscriptions

Subject: RE: A comment from a site visitor

I was asking about my Ancestry Magazine subscription, not my ancestry.com subscription. I subscribed to the magazine sometime in the summer.

Again, "I am now receiving my magazines. Can you tell me when my subscription started so that I know if I missed any [magazine] issues?"

-Valerie

6) -------

Valerie-

All my system tells me is that your active Ancestry Magazine subscription started Feb 2, 2009. So it sounds like you have missed some issues. They come ever 2 months, so there is only 6 issues a year.

Thank you

Ancestry Publishing Sales & Support

ancestry publishing

World Archives Project at Ancestry.com

From me, to ancestry.com support:

"I just received an invitation to participate in the World Archives Project. When I went to download the software I found out that this program is only for Windows. I'm very disappointed that ancestry is, once again, ignoring their non-windows users. I participate in Family Search's volunteer indexing program using my mac - why can't I participate in yours?

Other non-windows concerns:
-I can't upload gedcoms in Safari
-I can't always change trees in Safari
-FTM is not available for mac users

I hope that you are seriously considering fixing these issues."

From ancestry.com support to me:

"Thank you for your feedback.

I have forwarded your suggestion on to the development team.

Thank you,

Sean"

As a customer service response, it leaves much to be desired. Maybe, "we value macintosh users" or "we hope to soon have a program available for our mac users," etc. But nope, nothing. Don't I feel that my response has had an effect.... not really.