I am passing this information along because it sounds very promising. It's a peer-to-peer application, a little like the Napster application, where music lovers could search for, and download, millions of music CDs or individual songs. It's a new use of technology to search for roots. I'm not endorsing it....just passing along information for you to check out yourself. > Several people at Brigham Young University have finalized a new, > peer-to-peer network for > genealogy. With this application, called LINKED, you can publish > your genealogy > directly and search genealogy on others' computers > all around the world > in a very efficient manner. > > We've written the initial application and are giving > it away free to the > genealogical world in hopes that it will help > accelerate research. We > need beta testers to download and publish their > genealogy on the network > and participate in its pilot run. > > The LINKED software can be downloaded free from > http://genealogy.byu.edu/. > > This new network provides many benefits above and > beyond the traditional > methods of publishing to the web or submitting to a > central authority: > > 1. It is exact searchable for names, dates, > relations, and events, > whereas web search engines retrieve all sorts of > irrelevant results you > have to sift through. You can now submit searches > such as "John Smith, > married to Deanne, born within 20 years of 1830" and > get results that > only match that exact query. > > 2. It allows you to publish directly from your own > computer. When you > update your genealogy, it is immediately available > to the worldwide > network. You maintain control over the data you > have researched. There > is no longer a delay in publication when you submit > your genealogy > (since you only "submit" to yourself). > > 3. Think of a "Napster" of genealogy--that is what > this is--unhindered > by the legal issues associated with music. In > contrast, genealogists > love to share information and knowledge with each > other! > > Visit the faq at the web site for more information: > http://genealogy.byu.edu/faq.jsp. See also the > presentation that I gave > at BYU's Family History Technology workshop that is > on the site. > > Readers might be wary of a "free lunch" application. > This network is > part of P2P research that I am doing at Brigham > Young University's > E-Commerce Center and will further my research. The > application indeed > is free, both as the installable application and the > source code (GNU > public license). I decided to use genealogy as the > testbed for this > research because something like this is needed badly > by the genealogical > community. As the network becomes more popular, > I'll probably turn it > over to a central governing committee for oversight. > > Finally, please understand that while this research > and network are > being developed at BYU, it is not endorsed or > developed by the Church of > Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or its genealogy > department. Rather, > the network is for genealogical research completed > by all individuals of > any religion or nationality. It is part of research > being supported by > BYU's E-Commerce Center. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Searching for the Spradley and Ketchum families. Spradleys from SC to TX and Ketchums from VA to TX via AL and IL Check my home page for searchable data base of ancestors. http://www.hal-pc.org/~berrys """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""