Hints for Organizing Emails for Genealogy

1
Hints for Organizing Emails for Genealogy
1 October 2013 Manatee Genealogical Society-
Computer Special Interest Group Currie
Colket Slides at http//www.colket.org/genealogy/
MGS/
2
Overview

• email versus Traditional Postal Mail
• Typical email Functions
• History of emails
• POP (Post Office Protocol)
• IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
• Free email Accounts
• Internet Service Provider (ISP) Email Accounts
• Hosted Email Accounts
• Example Email Services
• Yahoo.com
• Gmail.com
• Hosted (Network Solutions gt colket_at_colket.org)

3
Emails Versus Traditional Postal Mail

• email message - Instead of using a pen to write a
  letter on paper, you use your keyboard to type an
  email message in an email program on your
  computer.
• Sending the email - When the email is finished
  and has been addressed to the recipient's email
  address, press the Send button in the email
  program. A stamp is not needed.
• email transport - Like postal services transport
  letters and parcel, email servers transmit email
  messages from sender to recipient. Usually,
  emails are not delivered to the recipient
  directly, though, but waiting at the "nearest"
  mail server to be picked up by their Internet
  Service Provider (ISP)
• Fetching new mail - If you've got new snail mail
  in your mailbox, you go and fetch it. Similarly,
  your email program can check for new email
  messages at your email server and download them
  for you to read.

4
Typical Email Functions

• Populate inbox with new messages
• Functions to Save, Download, Delete, Reply, Reply
  All, or Forward email
• Functions to attach documents for outgoing email
• Functions to download/save attachments for
  incoming mail
• Functions to manage email folders (directories)
• Functions to manage email addresses (contacts)

Many More Specialized Functions, especially for
Social Networking Skype type of video
communications
5
History of Emails - 1

• In early 1960s computers were standalone with
• Different operating systems for different
  computers
• Different commands to perform similar functions
  (e.g., login, search)
• No communication between computers
• Intergalactic Computer Network concept by J.C.R
  Lickider of Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN) in
  August 1962
• Concept contained almost everything the Internet
  is today.
• DOD Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA)
  adopted research concepts as ARPAnet as a means
  to share defense information between labs during
  the cold war.
• Contract awarded to BBN on 7 April 1969.
• Allowed communication between users of computers
  via packets of information.
• First demonstration message sent on 29 October
  1969 from a computer at UCLA to a computer at
  Stanford.
• - The message was received correctly, but caused
  the Stanford computer to crash?

Man on Moon 20 July 1969
6
History of the Internet - 2

• By September 1971, 23 nodes at DOD research
  centers and universities.
• In 1971, the first network-to-network email was
  sent
• By 1973, 75 of ARPAnet traffic was email
• By 1973, the file transfer protocol (ftp) was
  developed to allow file transfers over the
  ARPAnet
• By 1981, there were 213 hosts with a new host
  added every 20 days
• Typically use an email protocol 2 Most Popular
• POP (Post Office Protocol)
• IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)

My first email address in 1979 was colket at OSU
while working on Masters It was local and could
only send and receive email from that OSU
computer.
My first internet address in 1982 was
colket_at_nadc.navy.mil The extra nadc.navy.mil is
called the Domain Name each host had a unique
Domain Name
7
POP(Post Office Protocol)

• email sent gt
• It usually cannot be delivered directly to your
  computer
• Message has to be stored somewhere by your ISP
  which is online 24 hours on 7 days of the week
• As your ISP's mail server receives email from the
  internet it will look at each message and store
  it in your inbox
• ISP receives the message for you and keeps it
  until you download it.
• This folder is where the message is kept until
  either you retrieve it or one of your ISP's
  administrators finds your account has been filled
  and decides to delete all the mail in it
• Things that can be done via POP include
• Retrieve mail from an ISP and delete it on the
  server.
• Retrieve mail from an ISP but not delete it on
  the server.

8
Problems With POPMultiple Computers Offline

• In a typical POP session, you will download all
  (new) messages and delete them from the server
  immediately. This procedure works perfectly fine
  as long as you access your email from only one
  computer (and only one email program).
• As soon as you try to work on your email from
  more than one machine (a desktop at work and a
  laptop at home, for example), things get clumsy
  and complicated. Soon enough, you'll start
  forwarding and redirecting messages to yourself
  or set up two independent email accounts that
  forward to each other.
• At the root of your problem lies POP's concept of
  offline email access. Email messages are
  delivered to the server. Your email program
  downloads them to your computer and deletes all
  messages from the server immediately. This means
  they are all local to that computer, where you
  operate on them.

9
IMAP - 1(Internet Message Access Protocol)

• IMAP attempts to help remedy this unfortunate
  situation
• Basically, you operate on the mailbox that
  resides on the server as if it were local to your
  computer. Messages are not downloaded and deleted
  immediately, but reside on the server. There,
  they can be marked with several flags, for
  example "seen", "deleted", "answered", "flagged",
  or other, user-defined flags.
• What else do you do with messages in your email
  client? You would file them in different folders,
  and you would search the folders for specific
  messages. You can set up mail folders and file
  messages there, and you can tell the server to
  search its repository as you wish

10
IMAP 2(Internet Message Access Protocol)

• IMAP also allows access to shared mailboxes. This
  is an easy means of sharing information, or to
  make sure an email inquiry (to a support mailbox,
  for example), is dealt with. All support staff
  can access the IMAP mailbox, and they will
  instantly see which messages have been answered
  and which are still pending.
• IMAP was designed for online email access. You
  operate on the mailbox on the server as if it was
  on your computer. This allows for using multiple
  computers to access the same email account
  easily.
• I really like IMAP and highly recommend it
• POP is better for off-line library research
• Where access to emails is required.

11
POP versus IMAP

• Most email services support POP and/or IMAP
  access
• This means you can download your messages to any
  email program (such as Windows Live Mail,
  Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mac OS X Mail or
  iOS Mail).
• POP Notes
• Mail is always downloaded to computer and hence
  available whether on-line or off-line
• Possible to process emails while on travel
• Possible to reference emails while in library
• IMAP Notes
• Only access to email when online
• Can access email and folders anywhere in the
  world with internet access

12
Overview

• email versus Traditional Postal Mail
• Typical email Functions
• History of emails
• POP (Post Office Protocol)
• IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
• Free email Accounts
• Internet Service Provider (ISP) Email Accounts
• Hosted Email Accounts
• Example Email Services
• Yahoo.com
• Gmail.com
• Hosted (Network Solutions gt colket_at_colket.org)

13
Free Email Accountshttp//email.about.com/od/free
emailreviews/tp/free_email.htm

• Top 8 Free Email Services (as of Jan 2013)
  Ranked by preference
• yourname_at_gmail.com Googles approach to email
  chat almost unlimited message storage simple,
  but very smart interface Supports POP and IMAP.
• Zoho is a solid email service with ample storage,
  POP and IMAP access, some integration with
  instant messaging and online office suites. Aimed
  at professional users
• yourname_at_aol.com America On-Line (AOL)'s shines
  with unlimited online storage, very good spam
  protection and a rich, easy to use
  interface.yourname_at_iCloud free email service
  from Apple with ample storage, IMAP access and an
  elegantly functional web application. Limited
  productivity tools. No POP Interface
• yourname_at_Outlook.com serves free email with
  practically unlimited storage accessible on the
  web with a rich and helpful interface for using
  POP no IMAP
• yourname_at_hotmail Windows Live Hotmail is a free
  email servicyahoo.com - e that gives you
  unlimited storage, fast search, solid security,
  POP access - no IMAP access.
• yourname_at_yahoo.com Yahoo Mail is your
  ubiquitous email program on the web, Windows 8
  and mobile devices with unlimited storage,
  Supported by most systems.
• yourname_at_mail,com - Mail.com and GMX Mail are
  reliable email services filtered well of spam and
  viruses whose unlimited online storage you can
  use with a rich web interface and mobile apps.
  POP and iMAP access are available as a paid
  add-on.

14
Internet Service Provider (ISP) Email Accounts

• Email account comes free from ISP
• colket_at_verizon.net
• colket_at_tampabay.rr.com
• colket_at_att.net
• Most have good features.
• I have a hosted account on verizon.net

15
Hosted Sites
16
Overview

• email versus Traditional Postal Mail
• Typical email Functions
• History of emails
• POP (Post Office Protocol)
• IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
• Free email Accounts
• Internet Service Provider (ISP) Email Accounts
• Hosted Email Accounts
• Example Email Services
• Yahoo.com
• Gmail.com
• Hosted (Network Solutions gt colket_at_colket.org)

17
Example of Yahoo 1inbox
18
Example of Yahoo - 2
19
Example of Yahoo 3Directory
20
Example of Yahoo 4Contacts
21
Gmail 1inbox
22
Gmail 2Social Networks
23
Gmail 3Categories / Google
24
colket_at_colket.org - 1Inbox
25
colket_at_colket.org - 2Folders
26
colket_at_colket.org - 3Genealogy
27
colket_at_colket.org - 4Contacts
28
Questions
Please Ask Questions if you do not Understand
Anything
29
Future PlansSuggestions for FutureMGS Computer
SIGs

• Transitioning To Windows 8 Touchscreen
  March 2013
• Hints for Organizing Emails for Genealogy
  October 2013
• Genealogy, Using Facebook to Help!" (Vickie
  Hall) November 2013
• Sharing Research On-Line with Drop Box/Icloud
  Technology December 2013
• Posting Genealogical Files to Your Home Page
  (Don Campbell)
• Getting Pictures into Family History (Gay
  Schoenknecht 941-778-8689)
• Exploring New York Times Archive
• Exploring First Search
• Posting Stuff to WWW
• Explore Infoweb
• Exploring MyHeritage.com (not to be confused
  with Heritage Quest)
• Exploring Ancestry.com
• Beginning Computer Stuff ???
• Using Iphone for Genealogy (Jim???)
• Ten Useful Internet Tips for Genealogical
  Research
• Other Useful Programs
• What else would you like to have addressed at
  future Computer SIG Meetings?????