by Diana Tibert

Created on: May 15, 2008

One can spend days listing great websites with the best resources for genealogy, but in reality, just one website is all that is needed. It is the portal to the thousands of websites on the Internet that are dedicated to genealogy.

Created by Cindi Howells of Puyallup, Washington, USA, Cindi's List of Genealogy Sites (http://www.cyndislist.com/) celebrated its 12th anniversary in March 2008. In the beginning, the site consisted of one page and 1,025 links. Cindi posted the information to help members of her local genealogical society who were having trouble locating resources on-line.

From that first page, Cindi's List has grown to more than 330 individual pages containing more than 264,400 links. The Main Category Index page receives more than 15,000 visits each day while the entire website receives about 70,000. The list contains more than 120 categories, including individual pages for each Canadian province and US state.

From the General Facts page, Cindi writes, "On average I add 1,500 new links, update/correct 600 links, and delete 300 non-working links each month." To keep up with this and the more than 200 email messages a day, she works "every day including weekends and holidays".

Why does she do it? Cindi writes, "because I have fun doing this and I'm really tickled to hear the great success stories that have come to people through using the list.

"I want to make it easy for all researchers to find the online resources that are currently available. I read somewhere that the Internet is like a library with its books strewn all over the floor. I guess I'd like my list to be the card catalogue for the genealogy section of that library." She adds, "after all these years, I honestly believe that this is what I was meant to do."

So what will you find on Cindi's List? The answer is everything with a genealogy connection.

The Main Category Index lists topics in alphabetical order. Under the Canada Index, you'll find links for the ten provinces, three territories, General Canada Sites and Canada Military. Noted beside the link is the number of links contained on that page and when it was last updated.

Under the United States Index, links to every state can be found along with general interest links including The Mayflower, Pilgrims & The Plymouth Colony, National Archives, Social Security, The American Revolution and the Civil War.

But that's not all. Many more countries have their own page. From Africa to Sweden, from Australia to Scotland, there is something for everyone.

Once on a particular page, it is further broken down in geographical areas. There you will find links to libraries, museums, archives, cemeteries, maps, obituaries, census, vital statistics - you name it, it's there.

The Main Category Index also includes indexes to specific and general information. Some categories include Adoptions, Occupations, Orphans, Blogs, Books, Personal Home Pages, Calendars and Dates, Photographs & Memories, Podcasts for Genealogy, Poorhouses & Poverty, Ports of Entry, Ports of Departure - as I said before - if you are looking for it, it is on Cindi's List.

Like many websites, Cindi's List has a search engine (http://www.cyndislist.com/searchit.htm) to save hours of wading through hundreds of pages. Actually, she has four search engines. Keep in mind, the search engines search for key words throughout Cindi's website and not the linked sites.

There is also a No-frills' index for those with older or slower computers.

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