Accessing the cyber-genealogy community

If you're just getting into genealogy, or if you've been doing it for 50 years, and are not connected to the Internet, you are really missing out on a great resource.

I know, I know. Most of you old-timers pooh-pooh this modern way of doing things, but, believe me, if you used to get excited when you received a response to your query in the mail, imagine getting several every day.

Imagine being able to view cemetery records, marriage records, census records, church records, old letters and wills right in your own living room (or wherever you keep your computer).

Imagine corresponding with a whole bunch of people who are researching the same surname that you are.

And, with a few reservations, imagine being able to share family trees with millions of other people ... all in the blink of an eye.

These are just a few of the reasons you should bite the bullet and leap into modern technology.

I'm a big believer in the Internet. Oh, I still walk through cemeteries, visit courthouses and genealogy libraries and search official records. But so much groundwork can be prepared that can make your "outside" search much easier and more concentrated.

Let's take the first item first: receiving answers to your queries.

Doing it the old way, you subscribed to a genealogy magazine, submitted a query, waited weeks for the magazine to come out, then waited months hoping to receive an answer (if you ever did).

Or, you found a phone number in one of these magazines and spent a fortune on long distance calls, making copies and buying stamps.

With the Internet, you can post a query several ways and receive an answer almost instantaneously.

One way is through the Roots-L e-mail lists. I wrote a column about this topic several months ago, but I can't emphasize enough how easy it is to make contact with other researchers this way.

Go to www.rootsweb.com, click on the little tab at the top of the page that says "mailing lists," and browse all the e-mail lists that are available to researchers. They are available by surname or by region (state or county) and you may get as location-specific as you like. You may also sign up for as many as you (or your e-mail box) can take.

Let's suppose you are researching the name "Morris." Sign up for the Morris-L list on Rootsweb and you will be connected to millions of others researching the same name. You will receive a flurry of e-mails every day from the users on this list. Some may pertain to the Morris family you are researching, some may not. It's easy enough to delete those you're not interested in. Post your message and wait. Chances are, within a day or two (sometimes only minutes) you will receive an answer from someone.

Another way to contact other researchers who are looking for the same folks as you is to post a message on a message board. Rootsweb has these too and so does Genforum, a site maintained by Genealogy.com, affiliated with FamilyTreemaker and A&E. The Web address (address to access the site on the Internet) is http://genforum.genealogy.com/.

These message boards also are name and location specific. Let's say your Morrises were in Clayton County, Ga. Leave a message on the Morris board and on the Clayton County board and you will have covered all the bases. And leave your message on both the Rootsweb board and the Genforum board. They are not interconnected.

You may also browse and search the messages for any which may have been left on your family. Some of these messages go back to 1997.

Viewing records on the Internet has a few limitations, but every day, more and more records are being added to Web sites. You know those cemetery and marriage books you find at genealogy libraries? Well, many of those same records may be found online because somebody went to the courthouse, or managed to access the microfilm, and "transcribed" these records for a county or state Web site. You may NOT copy this information from a marriage or cemetery book someone has published. But anything found in original public records is fair game for publication on the Internet. This would include wills, censuses, marriage records, land records, deeds, and other records which are in the public domain.

To access these records, or to see what records are available in Georgia, go to the Georgia GenWeb (http://www.rootsweb.com/~gagenweb/) and look to see what records have been placed online for the different counties.

Suppose you are looking for cemetery records for your Morris family in Clayton County. Go to the Clayton County site on the Georgia GenWeb and click on "cemeteries." Any which have been transcribed will be there.

But, as I said, information is still limited and the cemetery you're looking for may not be there. If you really feel industrious or feel like contributing, do one yourself and send it to the Web site. The site coordinators will welcome your contribution efforts with open arms.

I reserved the sharing of family trees for last, because these are probably the least accurate of all records on the Internet. Many family trees on Rootsweb's WorldConnect Project, Ancestry's World Tree, and GenCircles have been done by very careful researchers. Unfortunately, some of them have been done by people who wouldn't know what the word "research" means. If they don't list sources, or say that sources are available upon request, they may not be accurate. And if they list someone else's family tree as a source ... they may have asked permission to use it or not and may have just propagated errors. You really have to be careful.

However, if you know how to use information as a lead and can sift through and know what is good information and what is not, the family trees can really get you across some hard places and send you further into your search.

If you don't have a computer, I highly suggest getting one. They are not as frightening as you may think and can really put you in touch with the world. Christmas is coming. Start tossing your hints out NOW.

Have you had great success with internet research? Did your family live in the Atlanta area? Let's hear those stories!

Send them to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214. Or, e-mail them to me at jkilgore@thecitizennews.com or jodiek444@aol.com.

Until next time ... happy hunting!

(Judy regrets that time does not permit her to do personal research for others. She will gladly share information on her own family, including collateral and allied lines.)

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