<Snip> > Others will offer lists of best genealogy websites, and even I teach > a short course on online genealogy for the library where I work. > > But as a contrarian, I also have short piece, "The Past Is Not > Online." I wrote it about my city, Buffalo, but it's applicable > just about everywhere. See: > > http://www.buffaloresearch.com/past.html Well said Cynthia! The net is wonderful. But people who think they can really "do" their genealogy by sitting at their computers in their comfortable homes are deluding themselves. I am compiling a book on the ancestors and descendants of Bartlett Eaves (ca 1765-ca 1833). His descendants turn out to be of sturdy stock, frequently living to great old ages. And they were great breeders, so, even though I am cutting the book off at Bartlett's great-great-grandchildren (really just listing the basic bmd without any biographical information on the gg-grandchildren) the book is now at about 400 8 1/2 x 11-inch pages in 10-point type and still growing. The footnotes probably take up 35 percent of those pages. God knows how much space the index will take. The greatest boon I have found is the on-line censuses provided by ancestry.com, which I subscribe to, and by Heritage Quest, which the public library here in San Antonio subscribes to. Ancestry.com also has a few vital records on-line that have been helpful. Alas no one has "done" the 1900 census. The GenWeb sites also have been helpful. Another great boon is that I have been able to find people who have done real research on their branches of that family and who have been willing to share the fruits of that research with me. But I have to say I am almost shocked at the great wealth of incorrect information that is available on the internet and the number of people who are willing to accept as Gospel someone else's undocumented GED-COM. As helpful as the net has been, I have spent many, many hours at libraries looking at books, and many, many more hours at my friendly neighborhood LDS Family History Center hunched over a microfilm reader. Then there are the trips to courthouses for records that haven't been microfilmed (God bless the LDS church!) and letters to county clerks, etc., accompanied by checks, to get copies of records that haven't been microfilmed. If I had known what I was getting into when I began working on this book about four years ago, it probably would not have happened. But now I am hooked! Janey E. Joyce in San Antonio, Texas Janey Joyce <jejoyce@sbcglobal.net>