I receive a genealogy newsletter and this was posted today. I am posting it to the list as we have a lot of "new" researchers and the following will help them find their way around the net and it does contain some good information for the "seasoned" genealogy "net surfer" enjoy and have a nice weekend Barbara ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------- GEORGE G. MORGAN: "ALONG THOSE LINES . . ." "EXPANDING OUR GENEALOGICAL CONTACT HORIZONS" <<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>><<<>>> ======================================================= Genealogists are good at networking. They make contact with one another in ways that other people would never think possible. They will offer to make photocopies, take photographs, print pedigree charts and family group sheets, and mail packets to one another, even though they have never met face to face, or talked on the telephone. Why is this? This week in "Along Those Lines . . .", let's discuss some of the motivations for these unselfish acts and how you can expand your genealogical contacts. ~ Nice People Do Nice Things Time and again, I am struck by how nice genealogists are. Most are friendly, gregarious people who are interested in other people. They like to talk, they like to share information, and they enjoy the feeling of belonging. If they didn't, they'd probably never have become interested in tracing their family history. They are interested in their family, in their family's place in history, and their place in the family. Each new branch, each associated line, and each collateral line adds another layer of interest to the family tree. A newly discovered cousin is reason for a major celebration. I cannot count the number of times I've exchanged information with another genealogist who just might possibly be related, no matter how remotely. Many of these "swap-fests" have been in vain, but a good many have resulted in "cousin connections" or information that extended my research back one or more generations beyond where I was the day before. In these cases, every expenditure of effort was repaid many times over. How do you make connections with these people? Let's look at some of the best ways to do so. ~ Making Connections There are dozens of ways to connect with other genealogists researching your lines. Earlier this year in this column, I discussed the benefits of joining genealogical societies in the areas in which your ancestors lived. Usually these organizations publish a newsletter, journal or magazine in which you may place a query. There are also commercial publications, such as "Everton's Genealogical Helper," in which you may place a written query for a small fee. But let's talk about some other methods. One of the most popular means of connecting with others researching your surnames is through E-mail mailing lists. Also known as listservs, mailing lists allow people sharing the same interest to send messages and postings to the entire group at once and receive a copy of every message sent to the entire list. This is similar to subscribing to a magazine devoted to a specific topic. There are literally hundreds of surname mailing lists. The best place to learn about mailing lists is at John Fuller's Web site, at: http://members.aol.com/johnf14246/gen_mail.html which will also provide a current listing of available surname mailing lists. (A single contact through the SWORDS mailing list earlier this year furthered my research four generations!) GEDCOM databases provide an excellent resource for making contacts. GEDCOM files, you'll remember, contain genealogical information extracted from people's personal research databases and written in a standard computerized format. These files can then be imported into your own genealogy database program. There are some excellent sites on the Internet where GEDCOM files contributed by genealogists are stored online and made available for free for your perusal. The best of these is at the Ancestry, Inc., Web site, located at http://www.ancestry.com. Here, you can type in your ancestor's name and search the free database. Once you've found an ancestor, you can traverse hyperlinks to marriages, spouses, and children, provided the original submitter had such information. You can download the full GEDCOM file, or you can obtain the submitter's E-mail address and send him or her a message. (I've personally made contact with dozens of other researchers this way and subsequently exchanged computer files, photocopies and other documents with them.) Please note that Ancestry, Inc., also maintains one of the largest online subscription-based research database repositories for your reference. Their GEDCOM database and several others are always free, however. If you are a member of America Online, the Genealogy Forum (Keyword: roots) provides a handsome array of reference resources through which you may make contact with other researchers. The Surname Center is a well-organized focal point of the forum, containing links to GEDCOM files stored in file libraries, links to a number of surname Web pages, and links to surname-specific message boards. The Message Board Center is a busy hub of activity. AOL members researching their family history may post messages or queries by surname, and other people may post replies and/or respond individually via private E-mail. (I have met several cousins through the message board facility. I've also exchanged E-mail, files, documents and numerous letters with contacts made via the Message Boards. It is a great connection facility.) NOTE: The Genealogy Forum sites mentioned above are available only to AOL members. Another AOL feature that can be useful to the genealogist is the Member Search facility. Using it, you can enter the surname you are researching, followed by the word 'genealogy,' and press the Search button. Reading members' profiles, AOL can provide you with a list of members whose personal profile information contains the surname and the word 'genealogy.' You can then read each one and see if there may be a match. If so, you can send a polite E-mail inquiry. If you're working on the World Wide Web, you should make a point of using some of the Internet search engines to search for your surname. Among the best of these are Alta Vista (http://www.altavista.digital.com) and Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.com). Simply open one of them in your Web browser, type in your surname (in lower case to maximize the number of matches), and go search. I suggest you type the following, substituting your surname where xxxxxxxx appears: xxxxxxxx + genealogy This should yield you a list of Web pages containing genealogical information, and maybe some of these will be a match. If a Web page looks like a good possibility or an exact match to your pedigree, and it also contains a hyperlink to the Webmaster's E-mail address, send an inquiry to him or her. You may make a valuable connection. (I recently made a contact with a third cousin once removed, and just received a package of documents from him the beginning of this week!) ~ Making an Inquiry Once you've discovered a possible connection, the next order of business is to make contact. This usually will take the form of a short, polite, concise E-mail. In the E-mail, introduce yourself and explain where you got the information that induced you to make contact. Explain carefully and succinctly what person(s) you are researching, and ask if there is a connection. Offer to exchange information, and provide contact information. I usually provide an E-mail address and a mailing address. A telephone number exchange can follow later if you have found a connection. Occasionally, I'll receive an excited E-mail in return and an envelope in a few days. Most times, however, first information is exchanged via E-mail. ~ More = More My experience is that the more attempts you make to contact others, the more opportunities there are for connections. You cannot sit in a cave and expect the party to come to you. Use the electronic resources that are available to you to expand your genealogical horizons. Let people know you are there, that you have information, and that you are ready to share. Get out there and network like the great genealogist you are! Happy hunting! George