#Microblog Monday 493: Gmail Excavation
Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.
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I love finding old emails when I’m searching for something, and this substack reminded me of the pure pleasure that comes from re-reading old thoughts. If you haven’t excavated your Gmail account recently, follow their instructions, search for a term or phrase, and see what pops up. It’s as good as the memories feature on Facebook for bringing you back to the moment.
P.S. Go down to section V in the substack for their recommendations/instructions for search.
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3 comments
I have a Gmail account, but I mostly use it as a secondary account. It’s got a lot of junk mail in it, lol (and you’ve reminded me I need to go clean it out! lol). I get my main email through my Internet provider. It’s not quite so easy to search, but I try to keep it fairly well organized and backed up.
I did go hunting through some old emails not long ago. My 3rd cousin asked me a genealogy-related question related to something we’d heard from a first cousin of my mom’s, who did a lot of research back in the 1980s & 90s, and died in 2006. So I went hunting through my old emails from her, dating back to 1999, up to 2006. Oh wow, what a blast from the past!! And a good reminder of just how far we’ve come, technology-wise in general and in terms of what you can find online about your family history (albeit there is still so, so much that has not been digitized!). There was one post where she’s eagerly anticipating the Family History Centre in Salt Lake City putting its INDEXES online! and telling me about a new program for your computer to keep track of your family tree, called Family Tree Maker (which is what I use today!). And getting copies of registry entries from Scotland by snail mail!
Oh, fascinating. My gmail account has been around since July 2010, so it’s seen all of IVF and what followed. My previous account was with hotmail and featured my previous married name, and that went to seed forever ago. It had a lot of painful things in it from my divorce. I guess I sort of excised it.
I am definitely not a zero-inbox person, I have a ridiculous number of emails in my inbox, but that sometimes yields treasures. I also like to look back on my screenshots on my phone… that can tell a story too!
As usual, awesome interwebs find!
I was recently cleaning out my gmail social/promotion tabs, and it was interesting to see what I’d decided to keep in previous cleanouts. I adore going back through my blogs – I’ve been blogging since 2006 – and looking at what I was up to, who was commenting, and what was top of mind for us all. I fear that gmail would send me down a rabbit-hole from which I might never emerge!