Genealogists have long had one foot firmly planted
in the past and the other in the future,
so it is not surprising that they took so quickly to the
Internet. The Internet has
given new meaning to the phrase "it's a small world."
Genealogists are now able to find cousins whether they are in the
next county or clear across the ocean.
What is it that makes the Internet such a benefit
to genealogists? In the
past, when a genealogist was searching for information on a given
ancestor, it would take years to exhaust all the records.
The researcher not only turned their attention to the available
primary sources, but they also had the enormous task of weeding through
the various published resources. Even
with wonderful finding aids such as PERSI, which was first released in
1985, the number of places that the researcher had to turn for possible
leads was overwhelming. And
the various published resources were seldom in a single repository.
Very often, even if the researcher knew of a repository with
information, it may have been years before they were able to access that
information.
The technology of the Internet helps genealogists
search out leads to their ancestors in a much easier and faster fashion.
And today, genealogists are in communication with each other and have
access to many aspects of research like never before.
Mailing Lists and Newsgroups
Mailing lists and newsgroups bring together
researchers from all over who share a common interest.
That interest could be in a specific locality, such as Moultrie
County, Illinois,m or a surname such as Smith.
And still other times the interest is in a specific period of
history, such as the Witch Trials of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts.
There are thousands of mailing lists of interest to genealogists,
and a good number of newsgroups.
The appeal of mailing lists may be higher because
of the ease of use. While
newsgroups require genealogists to download the messages by physically
visiting the site or by launching a program such as NewsRover to
download the messages of interest, mailing lists messages arrive
whenever e-mail is picked up in the normal course of the day. Since the
messages arrive in e-mail, researchers do not have to make a conscious
effort to seek them out.
However, it is impossible to read every message
from every mailing list and newsgroup.
Programs such as NewsRover offer the capability of specifying
words and phrases to seek out in the selected newsgroups.
Then these messages are downloaded and the researcher can read
through them.
A similar offering would be nice for mailing lists.
However, the researcher can take advantage of the search
functions built into their e-mail program or copy the messages to a file
in their word processor and rely on that program's search functions.
Regardless of how the researcher uses the messages,
the fact remains that they are now in contact with many researchers that
they may not otherwise have known.
Gone are the days of having to read countless queries in a
never-ending sea of published periodicals.
While these still very much exist and can be of use, most
researchers rely more heavily on the available online queries,
especially since online queries often offer a less stringent approach to
the query since space is not as much an issue as it is in periodicals.
Family History Pages
A search of the word genealogy on the
Internet results in over 5 million possible pages.
This number is only going to increase as more and more
researchers design webpages and upload their family history.
These pages can range from very simple listings of
the individuals in a given researcher's database, to elaborate
journal-style reports complete with scanned documents and images to
prove the family history and bring it to life.
The more information shared, the more possible connections a
researcher is likely to find.
With the number of family history pages currently
available, it could feel overwhelming to the novice in genealogy or on
the Internet. However,
search engines offer the researcher a method of locating these pages
like no researchers of the past have had.
In the past genealogists relied on the card
catalogs at the various libraries they visited.
They searched for published family histories in the catalog and
then searched the books for their ancestors.
They hoped that the books were indexed and lamented when they
were not.
Today, with the use of search engines on the
Internet, it is possible to locate specific names on family history
pages. Even when the name
is not immediately evident on a displayed page, the search functions
built into the browser software allow the researcher immediate access to
that name on the page. Although,
there are times when it is good just to read through the page to see
what else is available.
Raw Data
Raw data is truly what researchers seek.
They are forever cranking microfilm at the local LDS family
history center or if fortunate, at the Family History Library in Salt
Lake City. However, there
is a trend to add new databases and scanned images to the Internet to
make raw data available.
As technology has increased and prices have
decreased on some of the technological equipment used to digitize
information, more and more scanned documents are making their way onto
the Internet. This means
only good things on the horizon for genealogists.
While at the present time some of the resources
most heavily relied on are actually secondary sources —data has been
converted by human hand or OCR (optical character recognition) software
from its original format to that viewable online — these tools still
help the researcher. Even
though they are secondary sources, by finding them online, the
researcher is that much closer to accomplishing the goal that would
likely have taken them years if the resources were not easily available
through their local genealogy library.
Online Library Catalogs
Even when researchers prepare to take a research
trip, the Internet offers them a fascinating way to make the most of
their research time. Through
the advent of online library catalogs, it is possible to prepare before
even leaving the house. Such
libraries as the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois and the Allen
County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana offer the researcher the
ability to visit an online searchable library catalog.
No longer does research time at these libraries have to be spent
searching the library catalogs at the repository.
Through these online catalogs, the researcher can
actually prepare for the coming day's research the night before.
In that way, the researcher is no longer limited by the hours of
operation of the library. Plans can be made during the evening, so when the morning
arrives, the researcher can hit the library running.
FamilySearch®
Even the Family History Library's FamilySearch
databases have begun to make it onto the Internet.
Launched in May (http://www.familysearch.org), the overwhelming
attention given to this site actually caused some immediate growing
pains. While the online
version is not as complete as the CD-ROM version available through local
family history centers, it is reassuring to know that some research can
be done regardless of the hours of operation of the local centers.
At the present time the online Family History
Library Catalog™ is not complete, nor is the International
Genealogical Index™. The
IGI offers data for North America, the British Isles and
Scandinavia. But for a
large percentage of the researchers, this online source offers them at
least a starting point. Those
researching German ancestry must still rely on the hours of their local
family history center.
FamilySearch offereings do not mean that a
researcher need never enter their family history center again. It is still vitally important that primary documents
are investigated, which can only be done by ordering and viewing
microfilms. However, no
longer must a researcher spend the majority of their time searching the
catalog or using the other CD-ROMs, now they can visit their FHC, order
the microfilms they need and spend their precious hours viewing films.
Online Databases
With a number of companies competing to offer the
best and most comprehensive online databases, genealogists reap the
benefits with large quantities of databases now available.
Some of the present offerings include PERSI and the AGBI
(available at http://ancestry.com).
No longer must a researcher sift through the multi-volume
published edition of PERSI.
The books were always easy to use, but it is nice to know that a
single search online will find all the entries that used to require a
search of seven or ten books. In
fact, the computerized version of PERSI offers finds that were not
possible with the book version, as the researcher tended to limit their
search to surname and locality. The
computerized version offers the researcher a variety of ways to search
the database.
And where the AGBI (American Genealogical
Biographical Index) is concerned, it is now available to so many
more researchers. Prior to
its release online, it could be found in approximately two hundred
libraries across the United States.
Mny researchers who could have benefited from this massive
undertaking were deprived of its value.
For those researchers searching in New England, the Mid-Atlantic
or the MidWest, this online resource may prove beneficial.
These are but a couple of the currently available
online databases now available. But
with the far-reaching scope of these types of database, it is apparent
that researchers have some major sources at their fingertips to aid them
in focusing their research.
The Future
It is difficult to hazard a guess at where this is
all going. A look at such
fictional works as 1984 and 2001 has shown where the
fiction writers saw the technology and civilization going.
For genealogists the more technology, the better opportunities
available.
It seems there is no end in sight for this online
marvel know as the Internet. More and more genealogists are locating the
on-ramp and zooming off to locate family history pages or to create
them. Companies such as Ancestry.com are creating places for the family
historian to share their personal research or to make available
transcribed records or previously published resources in a new medium.
No longer is the researcher at the mercy of the
postal service to communicate with fellow researchers. In fact, while genealogists have always been an impatient
lot, they have grown even more impatient for responses knowing that
e-mail arrives almost instantaneously.
That seems a small price to pay, though, for technology that is
making unheard-of amounts of research possible.
(This Work
Copyright 1999, Ancestry.com, Inc., all rights reserved. To see this
Work in its original context and to view others like it, visit www.ancestry.com.)
You can contact me at
rhondam@thegenealogist.com
if you have any questions.