April Leigh Helm - AARP Genealogy Online: Tech to Connect

AARP Genealogy Online Tech to Connect

by Matthew L. Helm and April Leigh Helm

AARP Genealogy Online: Tech to Connect

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Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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ISBN: 978-1-118-24405-0 (pbk); 978-1-118-28316-5 (ebk); 978-1-118-28429-2 (ebk); 978-1-118-28707-1 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Authors

Matthew L. Helm is the chief executive officer of Boneyard Creek Heritage, Inc., a family and local history services company. He is also the chief history officer at HistoryKat.com, Inc., a company that specializes in digitizing and posting historical records online. The creator and maintainer of the award-winning Helms Genealogy Toolbox and the Helm/Helms Family Research Page (and a variety of other websites), Matthew speaks at national genealogical conventions and lectures to genealogical and historical societies. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in history and a master of science degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His full-time job is serving as the executive director of administrative technologies at Illinois State University.

April Leigh Helm, who is the president of HistoryKat.com, Inc., and Boneyard Creek Heritage, Inc., works as an enterprise systems coordination specialist for the University of Illinois. A lecturer on genealogy and other topics for various conferences and groups, April holds a bachelor of science degree in journalism and a master of education degree in higher education administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Together, the Helms have coauthored several books in addition to the six editions of Genealogy Online For Dummies, including Family Tree Maker For Dummies, Your Official America Online Guide to Genealogy Online (all published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), and Get Your Degree Online.

Dedication

For Kyleakin and Cambrian

Authors Acknowledgments

We offer special thanks to our friends at John Wiley & Sons, who provided invaluable guidance and feedback on this book: Katie Mohr, Kim Darosett, Rebecca Whitney, Sharon Mealka, and Pat OBrien.

Connections That Work for You

A re you searching for your ancestral roots, but you dont know where to look? Or have you started to pull together your family history and gotten stuck on a particular detail? Youve turned to the right place for help.

Dedicated to helping you strengthen your family ties and navigate the world of technology, AARP has joined with the For Dummies brand to offer the best advice and solutions for using tech to connect.

This step-by-step guide offers ways to

Find free and low-cost software, websites, and other resources

Use social networking sites to locate family members you didnt know you had

Build your own site to compile and share information with relatives

Create a family project that will delight all generations

Whatever your experience with genealogy online or offline our easy-to-follow resource helps you build your family tree.

Ready to start digging? Lets go!

Publishers Acknowledgments

Were proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com . For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites

Project Editor: Kim Darosett

Acquisitions Editor: Katie Mohr

Copy Editor: Rebecca Whitney

Technical Editor: Sharon Mealka

Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cover Photos: amana images / Jupiter Images (main image); iStockphoto.com / Ivan Stevanovic (background image)