From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Tue Aug 22 21:16:34 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k7N3GYjb021451; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:16:34 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k7N3GUHp007172 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:16:30 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k7N0aQFI014311 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:36:26 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k7N0aQdq014310 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:36:26 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k7MLl1FI013979 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:47:01 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k7N0QuKo015447 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:26:56 -0600 X-Envelope-From: cwesemann@charter.net Tue Aug 22 18:26:55 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k7N0Qtjb015438 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:26:55 -0600 Received: from mxsf03.cluster1.charter.net (mxsf03.cluster1.charter.net [209.225.28.203]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k7N0QrmV019920 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:26:53 -0600 Received: from mxip15a.cluster1.charter.net (mxip15a.cluster1.charter.net [209.225.28.145]) by mxsf03.cluster1.charter.net (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id k7N0QmhI020264 for ; Tue, 22 Aug 2006 20:26:48 -0400 Received: from 71-81-90-8.dhcp.stls.mo.charter.com (HELO [10.0.1.3]) ([71.81.90.8]) by mxip15a.cluster1.charter.net with ESMTP; 22 Aug 2006 20:26:48 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) In-Reply-To: <200608222305.k7MN5Z9N011599@lists5.rootsweb.com> References: <200608222305.k7MN5Z9N011599@lists5.rootsweb.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <6B0E7ECE-A52B-4B98-96E3-DB4BF1A7E9E6@charter.net> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Cathleen Wesemann Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:26:48 -0500 To: ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] Re: ROOTS-L Digest V06 #369 > I wrote to the local newspaper less than a year ago and asked if > there were archives of obituaries. I included my e-mail address, > but, very > sadly, no reply. (I can't help but to find that rude-- how long > does it > take to sent an e-mail stating whatever?!) Fred -- While I can't answer your question about your grandfather, I can help a little bit with your question about local newspaper offices. I work in the features department of our local newspaper. I don't know how large or small a staff is at the paper that you wrote to, but ours has approximately 300 employees. Most of those employees are at the plant and the advertising department. The editorial staff is about 35 people. That includes the Lifestyle department (my department with a whopping 4 people), the sports department (5 people), 1 editorial artist, 3 photographers, leaving about 22 people to write and edit the "news" of the newspaper. There is also 1 librarian. Her whole job is maintaining our website. I help out as I can with our internal library system, but I'm behind by about a week. The point I'm trying to make is that it could be the person you wrote the email to just didn't have the time to see if their library has an archives of obituaries available online for the public to view. Or, perhaps he/she saw what your note was about, and forwarded it to the librarian. If the librarian is anything like ours, she just doesn't have the time. I've told our librarian that if she gets any genealogy questions, to forward them to me, because I know she doesn't have time to check her email on a daily basis. I've got 2 notes from her from people asking genealogical questions that I still haven't had time to answer. I will, but it is taking me awhile to get back to them. I know it seems rude to not answer an email right away, but the people who work at newspapers are not interested in genealogy unless it's an employee (like me) who does this as a hobby. It's not that they don't want to help, it's that they have to get a newspaper out, and there are deadlines to meet in order to get that paper printed and out the door to a customer's door by 6 a.m. We're a daily newspaper, so we have to do this every day with a staff that could use a lot more people. We're very understaffed. I'm not trying to make excuses for the newspaper not answering your email; someone should do so. But perhaps they haven't done it yet because it just hasn't made it to the right person. Since it sounds like it's been quite awhile since you last wrote to them, perhaps you should try again. Cathy Wesemann Belleville, St. Clair, IL