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The title, "How to set up a personal surname website for genealogy research," sounds worse than it is. I think. To keep it simple wouldn't any website do? And dedicate it to family names? Unfortunately, they all seem to cost money.

Sites such as https://www.thefamilypost.com/ help you develop a great family site, and family history could be included. Or individuals can subscribe to a website host such as GoDaddy for less than $100 a year, and set up the pages any way they want. An example can be seen at http://charette.no-ip.com:1234 /Charette/ where the owner lists all her family surnames alphabetically, and each name is linked an index of all the individuals in the database with that surname, together with any extra information known about him/her.

I once set up a Yahoo site for free and managed to create a family tree with its many branches, including old photographs. It took me months to do, and I guess it's still somewhere out there in the ether. I mention this because I think my time would have been better spent making a straightforward list like that of the above mentioned lady.

If you do compile a personal surname website, About.com:Genealogy at http://genealogy.about.com/lib rary/blsubmitsurname.htm would like to hear from you. They ask, "Do you have a personal Web site devoted to a single surname? Or do you maintain a personal Web site which contains an HTML linked database containing over 500 surnames? If so, then please submit your site here for listing on my surname pages! All Web sites will be personally reviewed by me and you will be notified if I select yours for a listing on my site."

Now that's a generous invitation, and by About.com no less. Anything posted on there gets everyone's attention.

Learn more about this author, Anne Bradshaw.
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