Where is my freebie?

Picture this. You requested a free resource from The Creative Family Historian, but nothing arrived. Or emails started hitting your inbox, but you didn’t get the requested resource.

Sounds scammy, but it’s usually because of a common reason:

• Your email service provider (e.g. Gmail, Microsoft etc.) thought it was suss, so they delivered it to your junk, spam, promotions or similar folder.
• The download links are in one of the emails that have been arriving.
• Past you requested that resource already, so it won’t be automatically sent out.

How do you know the problem, and what can you do about it?

No sign of the email

Step one: check all the folders, including the trash.

Yep, it’s annoying, but it has to be done, just like cleaning between the couch seats or under the refrigerator. No one wants to do it, but that’s often where the good stuff is hiding.

Each email system labels these folders differently. Some call it spam; others name it junk. Gmail also has promotions and social. Check them all. If your software has search functionality, look for email messages from [email protected] or The Creative Family Historian.

If you find the email, follow step two and if you didn’t, head to step three.

Step two: move the email to your inbox

If you found the email, then move it to your inbox. If you’re prompted to mark it as “not junk” or as a “safe sender, “please do so. That will increase your chances of all messages from me hitting your inbox in the future.

It will also help if you hit reply and send me a quick message. Say hi. Tell me about your latest genealogy discovery. Or share the reason why you got into genealogy. I like getting emails, so don’t be shy.

Step three: take the manual request approach

If you’ve waited for a while and all searches for The Creative Family Historian are coming up empty, then shoot me an email to let me know. I can jump into the system and see what is going on.

Don’t forget to tell me the name of the resource you’re waiting for and the email address you used.

The email address to send your requests to is [email protected].

Finding the email with the download links

If you’re receiving emails, then there is a good chance that you have one with the download links. I know email likes to play hide and seek sometimes, so I typically send two messages with the download links. The first has the name of the resource in the subject line, and the second subject line is “Let’s get right to it.”

For example, if you request the Essential Ancestor Discovery Worksheet, then that will be the subject line.

If your software has search functionality, look for my email messages containing the word download. Check the support centre for your email software to find the latest instructions for the program that you’re using.

Once you locate the email, you’ll find the download links at the top or the bottom of the message. Here are some examples of screenshots of the email messages. These are not active download links. You’ll need to receive the emails to get those.

Example 1:

Example 2:

The email is blank

You’ll find the solution to this issue in a separate article — I received a blank email.

Email deliverability

Deliverability is controlled by your email service provider, not the sender. You can help to ensure that you receive the messages that you want by doing these things:

• Add [email protected] to your email contacts or address book.
• Reply to my messages every so often to let your email provider know that these are messages you want to receive.
• Safelist my domain name – thecreativefamilyhistorian.com. Check the support centre for your email software to find the latest instructions for the program that you’re using.