Michael Dunn - A Beginners Guide to Online Genealogy

AVON, MASSACHUSETTS

Are you curious about the origin of your last name? Confused as to why your grandfather never spoke about his family? Do you want to know if you have a famous relative or a bit of scandal in your background?

Years ago, you could have spent thousands of dollars and countless hours thumbing through piles of paper in a distant town or even foreign countries trying to get to the bottom of your family history. Fortunately, times have changed and, today, you can access millions of historical records from the comfort of your own home with just the click of a mouse. But how do you search through all that data to find what you really need? How do you find information on your family, when theres so much out there? Thats where A Beginners Guide to Online Genealogy comes into play.

Packed full of easy-to-understand, cost-effective ways to fill out your family tree, this book takes you through the processstep-by-stepand teaches you how to use the Internet to plan your project, track down your family (even if they lived overseas), and share your findings with other genealogists or even long-lost family members. Youll even find invaluable information on free databases, the most popular genealogy apps, and moreall from the comfort of your couch!

In addition, youll learn how to use specialized software that makes it easy to keep track of hundreds or even thousands of tangled family connections. Youll see satellite images that can help you visualize the places where your ancestors once lived. And youll gain access to any number of online sites that can help you find military and death records, immigration passenger lists, and census reports to keep you moving forward.

As you search for your family history, youre guaranteed to make many discoveries along the way, both about your ancestors and about yourself. You may find that ancestors who led quiet, ordinary lives can be fascinating in their own special ways, and that history is much more interesting when you know that your ancestors were participants. And, once you learn about your familys history, youll be able to guarantee that your ancestors stories arent lost to time by memorializing them on any number of genealogy sites or even by displaying a beautiful rendition of your family tree in your home. After all, their stories are your stories, so start researching and figure out who you really are. Enjoy the journey!

Millions of digitized images, from marriage certificates to military service records, can be viewed online. Published genealogies allow budding family historians to extend their family tree by generations in just a few minutes. There is even free online software available to help you record the information you find and build your family tree. Today, you can successfully use the Internet to plug into your past. Before you begin, however, you first need to learn a few tools of the tradethe symbols, terms, and conventions used by genealogists to collect, record, and communicate the relationships in a family tree. Some of the information presented in this introductory chapter may seem a bit complex at first, but after you spend a little time tracing your family tree it will all start to come together.

Why are you interested in your family history? Are you curious about the origin of your last name? Do you want to learn more about Great-Grandpas Polish roots? Are you hoping to identify as many of your ancestors as possible? Has an interesting story been handed down in your family that you want to pursue? Defining what you hope to learn on this journey is an important first step.

Even if your goal is to trace your entire family tree, it is practical to begin with one family line at a time. Otherwise, your research will quickly lead you into a bewildering maze of branching lineages. Go back just three generations in your own family tree, and youll find yourself faced with researching the genealogy of eight great-grandparents. One family tree has now branched into eight, and it continues to multiply from there. By the time youve worked your way through ten generations of your family, youll have discovered more than 1,000 ancestors!