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Ancestry Daily News
11/7/2001 - Archive
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Rootsworks: Mail Merging A Blind Inquiry Letter with Word |
Rootsworks: Mail Merging A Blind Inquiry Letter with Word
Genealogists used to do almost all of their work by mail. Today, I'd like to
revive and update the lost art of the Blind Inquiry Letter. Of late, receiving
mail from someone you don't already know can be a nervous experience. Yet many
genealogists are still not online, and can't be reached by e-mail. Let's talk
about how you can write letters to people who may have the information you're
looking for.
What Is It?
"Often, a letter to such 'blind leads' can result in finding (or confirming)
connections that may not be available via (or are darn difficult to find in)
the conventional records. Nearly every family has had, at one time or another,
a knowledgeable soul who stashed some keepsakes and/or records that prove invaluable
to today's genealogist. How often have you heard 'Oh, you MUST talk to Aunt
Hilda; she knows ALL about our ancestors?')
"Just as often, these same folks can—if you approach them in the right way
—yield invaluable photos, documents, memories, and recollections impossible
to find elsewhere . . . the kinds of things that bring a family history alive."
A package consists of four things:
Cover letter
Questionnaire
Envelope
Return envelope
It's truly important that newcomers to family history know how to write
these. We're going to talk about how you can use a personal computer to personalize
these letters and to print the envelopes for them.
Name Two of Them
First of all, you need a computer with a word processor. I haven't seen a computer
without one in ten years. The examples on my Web site use Microsoft Word 2000,
but you can do the same things with Word Perfect or Ami Pro or whatever program
you have. Word is very simple. I've put an example blind inquiry package on
my Web site, using mail-merge. The original documents from CompuServe can be
seen on Paul Havemann's Web site. (See the "Link Me Up" section below.)
When it Works, What Does It Do?
Folks, this is direct mail—but it's not junk mail. You want to persuade a
stranger to open this letter, read it, and act on it. That means that you should
be nice. You should offer a "premium" if they do what you want—sharing your
research or revealing the connection between your families if you find one.
Your letter should, according to Havemann, "try to keep their attention by relating
some information about your research to date; this works best if you can personalize
it by relating a couple of tidbits about people with the same surname as your
respondent. (A lot of folks find that fascinating, even if they're not really
into genealogy.) The idea is to *keep them reading*—if you can't hook them
with the first few sentences, then odds are they won't finish the letter and
will toss it."
There are five steps to making a mail merge work.
1) Create a main document, in this case a form letter.
2) Set up a data source. That's your names and addresses. This can be a word
document, an excel worksheet, or an access database. In the examples on my site,
I used a word document.
3) Insert word and merge fields. These are the places where your data will show
up in your letter. Word fields are things like the date and page number. Merge
fields are address fields, but they could be brief paragraphs about an ancestor
with their surname.
4) Preview the merged document to be sure everything is ready. This is one of
my favorite features in Word 2000. There is a Merge Toolbar, and an icon with
chevrons like this << >>, and it toggles from looking at the merged field names
to previewing the actual merged data. I have saved a lot of paper by previewing
this and realizing that my form or my data wasn't ready yet.
5) Merge the documents to the printer, or collect them into a third word document.
This is largely a matter of personal choice. Some people find that their printers
might jam on long documents. They will be moved to tears to learn that they
can save the merged letters into a third document, and print the pages ten at
a time, for example.
Then repeat the steps above for the envelopes. Don't use labels on your "outside"
envelopes. They're okay for the return envelope. Word has a Merge Wizard that
will let you go back to any of the previous steps, so you can be sure you get
what you want.
What's the Down Side?
Well, you won't hear from everybody. Direct marketers get a 1 percent hit rate.
Paul Havemann claims a 5 percent return. That's one out of twenty. You will
drill some dry holes.
You will also need good addresses.
Link Me Up (More Stars Is Better)
— Beau Sharbrough's Genealogy Articles
www.sharbrough.net/genealogy/genarticles.htm
Where to find an example using mail merge, and links to previous articles in
this series.
— Land Grant Training Alliance****
www.lgta.org/word7mrg/
Step-by-step merging instructions.
— Computer Training 2000***
www.computertim.com/howto/articles/word/wo10.htm
Another how to article.
— Paul Havemann's Site ****
www.havemann.com/
The first mad scientist to merge family history and direct marketing. This site
contains Paul's original examples.
What Else?
Resist the temptation to use stamps.com to print postage on your envelopes.
A stamp has a personal touch that will help. One last note on envelopes is another
of Paul Havemann's ideas: If your last name is Sharbrough and you are writing
to people named Propes, you might consider crafting a return address that includes
a second line like "Great-grandson of John Wayne Propes." It will communicate
your connection to them and may influence them to open the envelope.
Give some thought to situations where you would "e-Mail Merge" inquiries to
persons for whom you have e-mail addresses. The marketing and merging techniques
are essentially the same, except that you don't have to buy double postage.
Be careful about how many you send out at a time—some e-mail service providers
don't permit sending large numbers of e-mails in order to discourage spamming.
If you aren't sure what your ISP's limitations are, check their Web site, or
e-mail them and ask.
Beau Sharbrough is the lame duck president of GENTECH, and the founder of the
GENTECH and FGS Web sites. The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical
applications for generic technologies. He would like to hear from you at mailto:beau@sharbrough.net,
but due to the volume of e-mail received, he is unable to answer every e-mail
message received. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual
computer problems, as he is generally busy developing The Virtual Excuse, a
product to promote harmony in family life. Visit Beau's Web site at: www.sharbrough.net/
for links to previous articles and updates on TVE. Beau is the father of two
college-age girls who make excuses adroitly, and is a proud graduate of Texas
A&M University.
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