Genealogy is a great use of a personal computer in three ways.
First, a home computer can safely store everything you know about your family: names, dates, other details, stories, even documents, photographs, recordings and video. No more worrying about a box full of yellowing papers and aging photographs. You’ll probably keep those, anyway, for their physical feel and texture, but with digital copies you can rest easier since you’ll have backups for all your paper documents.
Second, with the right software, a home computer can organize that information. The PC can draw beautiful family trees, or print family scrapbooks full of photos. It can sort and print family reunion mailing lists and labels.
Third, when equipped with an Internet connection, a home computer can reach out to all sorts of genealogy information. It can help you find out about your ancestors so you can fill in the branches of that family tree. If your software can “export” and “import” genealogy information in the standard GEDCOM, or Genealogical Data Communication, format, you’ll be able to share your results with others on the Net.
Where do you find such information?
The best place to start is the informal guide at “A Genealogy Primer” (www.sky.net-mreed-primer.htm). This tells you the smart steps for on-line and off-line research. Another early stop should be “Twenty Ways to Avoid Genealogical Grief” (www.rootsweb.com-roots-l-20ways.html). That page can lead you to the Rootsweb (www.rootsweb.com ), a large and venerable collection of information and links.
The National Genealogical Society (www.ngsgenealogy.org) is a non-profit group offering tips, consumer-protection warnings, links and offers to join study trips. Other good general collections of links include Cyndi’s List (www.cyndislist.com) and Helm’s Genealogy Toolbox (genealogy.tbox.com). Everton’s Genealogical Helper magazine is also on-line (www.everton.com).
The Genealogy Home Page (www.genhomepage.com) has a simple set of links to guides, libraries, software and services. The site is sponsored by the popular Family Tree Maker software. Most genealogy programs offer Web sites that are open to anyone; you don’t have to buy the software to use the site, though there may be some portions of the site available only to program owners.
I like the Family Tree Maker’s own site (www.familytreemaker.com), because it has links to an enormous amount of information, such as how-to articles, research services, clubs and organizations, and reference sites, yet isn’t slowed by fancy designs or graphics. Lots of the information is free, but there are fee sections, such as the $50-per-year Genealogy Library collection of references, and there are offers to buy some of Family Tree Makers research information on CD-ROM.
Then there are sites that offer genealogical goods, such as the GenealogyBookShop.com (www.genealogybookshop.com). It includes guides to genealogy software, if you’re in the market for a program.
After you’ve got your start, you can chase the links mentioned above. And you can go directly to other reference sites to look up names you already know, or to find more names.
Looking for records here in the United States, home of the Internet? The Library of Congress’ project to build a national digital library of American history has a nice outlet (rs6.loc.gov-amhome.html).
Looking overseas? The Net is reaching lots of places now. For example, the National Archives of the United Kingdom has a site (www.pro.gov.uk). The Genealogy Home Page includes a list of links to many other regions and countries (www.genhomepage.com-world.html).
Have a particular ethnic background to trace? There are specialized sites such as JewishGen (www.jewishgen.org) for Jewish genealogy.
Is the trail obscured by adoption? There are lots of adoption sites on the Net, including the Adoptee & Genealogy Page (www.mtjeff.com-bodenst-page3.html). Links there can guide you to lots of help in finding birth parents.
Don’t fall prey to thinking the Web is the entire Internet. There are other tools available on-line.
Many genealogy sites employ chat, e-mail and bulletin boards. They may have mailing lists so you can regularly get updates on relevant information. The Genealogy Online site (www.genealogy.org) offers all of those Internet tools.
Genealogy newsgroups include alt.genealogy and a whole series of soc.genealogy specialties, such as soc.genealogy.nordic and soc.genealogy.slavic. For a more complete list, check with Genealogy Resources on the Internet (users.aol.com-johnf14246-genmail.html). This site also has links to genealogy FTP sites, Telnet sites, Gopher sites, e-mail sites and yes, Web sites. But it focuses on mailing lists, about general genealogy, about software and about research within dozens of countries.
There are also Bulletin Board Systems, or BBS. These are individual computers equipped with modems and special software. They wait for a direct call from your modem, at which point they act like primitive Web sites, offering information to read and download, as well as chat and e-mail. Some BBS have joined the Internet, but some are still independent. There may be some you’d like to dig into. For a list of BBS, hit Genealogy Online (genealogy.org-gbbs).
A fine book on this whole topic is “Searching for Cyber-Roots” by Laurie and Steve Bonner (Ancestry Incorporated, $16.95). It has lots of Web site information, a sizable chapter on creating your own genealogy home page and an important warning: “The Misinformation Superhighway? A word of caution before you get started. Just because you found the information on the Web does not mean that it is accurate.”
