Information about Newsgroups
History pioneers, net.roots, ROOTS-L, soc.roots, alt.genealogy, RootsWeb, reorganizations, mailing list migrations, etc.
About Newsgroups Moderation, spam, how-to create a soc.genealogy group
About Mailing List Gateways Who, why, when, where, how.
FAQs What is a FAQ and links to a lot of them.
Archives Links to archives for the newsgroups.
Some Ancient Net History - How RootsWeb came to be - by Brian Leverich
www.CyndisList.com/internet.htm Cyndi's List Internet Information.
List of all Big 8 Newsgroups Link from there to lists of Alt Groups.

General Interest Newsgroups
soc.genealogy.misc   General genealogical discussions.
soc.genealogy.computing   Genealogical computing & net resources.
soc.genealogy.marketplace   Genealogy services and products.
soc.genealogy.medieval    Genealogy in the period from roughly AD500 to AD1600.
soc.genealogy.methods   Genealogical methods and resources. (Moderated)

Ethno-Geographic Newsgroups
soc.genealogy.african    Genealogy of Africa and the African Diaspora. (Moderated)
soc.genealogy.australia+nz    Australia, New Zealand, and their territories.
soc.genealogy.benelux    Genealogy in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg
soc.genealogy.britain    Genealogy in Great Britain and the islands.
soc.genealogy.french   Francophone genealogy.
soc.genealogy.german    Family history including a German background.
soc.genealogy.hispanic    Genealogy relating to Hispanics.
soc.genealogy.ireland    Genealogy in Ireland (both North and South).
soc.genealogy.italian    Italian genealogy and family heraldry.
soc.genealogy.jewish   Jewish genealogy. (Moderated)
soc.genealogy.nordic    Genealogy in Denmark, Faeroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
soc.genealogy.slavic   Genealogy of Slavic peoples.
soc.genealogy.west-indies   Genealogy of the West Indies.

Surnames - seven connected soc.genealogy.surnames.* newsgroups
soc.genealogy.surnames.global   Surnames queries central database. (Moderated)
soc.genealogy.surnames.britain   Surnames queries - Great Britain. (Moderated)
soc.genealogy.surnames.canada   Surnames queries - Canada. (Moderated)
soc.genealogy.surnames.german   Surnames queries - German speaking countries. (Moderated)
soc.genealogy.surnames.ireland   Surnames queries - Ireland & Northern Ireland. (Moderated)
soc.genealogy.surnames.misc   Surnames - regions not covered elsewhere. (Moderated)
soc.genealogy.surnames.usa   Surnames queries - USA. (Moderated)

About the Automoderator   - About Moderation and Subject: lines.

NOTE:  All the soc.genealogy.surnames.* newsgroups and their associated mailing lists have been silent since June 22, 2000 due to a serious problem with the automoderation routine.  Until the automoderator is reprogrammed, there will be no messages in any of these newsgroups.  If you have questions about these groups, email SURNAMES-admin@rootsweb.com.

Not in the soc.genealogy hierarchy, carried on many servers
alt.genealogy  General Genealogy

These groups were superseded by other soc.genealogy groups:
soc.roots: replaced by soc.genealogy.misc and six others in 1994
soc.genealogy.uk+ireland: replaced by soc.genealogy.britain and soc.genealogy.ireland in 1997
soc.genealogy.surnames: replaced by soc.genealogy.surnames.global and six others in 1997

These Norwegian groups were renamed in 1999
no.slekt: replaced by no.frittid.slektsforsking.diverse
no.slekt.etterlysning: replaced by no.fritid.slektsforsking.etterlysing
no.slekt.programmer: replaced by no.fritid.slektsforsking.it

Other - mostly just links - some may not exist on your server
wny.freenet.genealogy.general  Genealogy in Western New York State, USA
fr.rec.genealogie  Francophone Genealogy - all topics - in French
fr.comp.applications.genealogie  Francophone Genealogical Computing - in French
dk.historie.genealogi - in Danish
no.fritid.slektsforsking.diverse  General Genealogy (Norwegian)
no.fritid.slektsforsking.etterlysing  Surnames (Norwegian)
no.fritid.slektsforsking.it  Computerized genealogy (Norwegian)
se.hobby.genealogi - in Swedish
swnet.sci.genealogi - in Swedish
sfnet.harrastus.sukututkimus - in Finnish
wales.genealogy - specific to Wales
maus.rec.genealogie - Germany
maus.wissenschaft.genealogie - Germany

For Newsgroups and Information about Newsgroups
DejaNews - Newsgroups via the Web
news.announce.newgroups Usenet Newsgroups Announcements of RFDs/CFVs
news.groups Newsgroup organization discussions (Big-8)
ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/soc/ - FAQs/RFDs/Votes Archives
or
ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/soc/ - FAQs/RFDs/Votes Archives