by Marilyn Dunn

Created on: July 13, 2008

How the Internet Changed Genealogy Research

The Internet has changed the course of genealogy research. Even in just the last decade I have seen the most amazing advances in being able to trace your family history and put together your family tree. To think of all the hours those dedicated genealogists spent in front of a microfiche machine turning that handle and eventually feeling dizzy is a testament to their dedication.

I started my search at the National Archives branch in my City. This was fortunate, as there are only 10 Regional Archive locations in the U.S. My search started in 1997 and in a little over 10 years my research has gone from turning the cranks on those old microfiche machines to clicking onto the internet and searching such sites as Ancestry.Com, Ellis Island website, Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet, Rootsweb, the Social Security Death Index, US GenWeb, not to mention cemetery sites, individual surname sites, military records sites, etc. With search engines like "Google", today you merely have to enter a surname, a birthplace, or a cemetery and the number of possibilities will be endless. You will also be surprised by the number of others who are looking for the same information. The U.S. GenWeb Project is a great example of people working together to help each other. Volunteers post their research on the site for all to share. Their goal is to have every county in every state represented and access remain free.

My success was directly linked to those I found on the Internet when first starting my search. Yes, I will never forget the excitement I felt the first time that microfiche at the old National Archives Building in Seattle unearthed a clue and then an answer but that was after hours and hours, days and days of searching and taking time off from work as they were not open on the weekends. I will also never forget that first email I received from someone with the same name as mine who connected me via email to another who just happened to have my family genealogy in his file going back to the mid 1600's! Now I can't calculate the hours, days and phone calls to work that would have taken me to do myself.

In May of 1997 I looked on an Italian genealogy internet site and made my first "post" looking for the surname of my grandfather who was born in a small hill town not far from Naples. About two days later I received a response from someone whose grandparents had a different name, but low and behold, came from Calitri, the

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