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If you are like me, you are a middle aged person that has been given the genealogy information from your father and it has passed down through generations. What is there to do that hasn't yet been done? You can get the age of computers in on the game. There are many ways to better the look of your research using the computer and internet that even the computer illiterate would be able to use.

The easiest of what I am talking about is the use of Family Tree Maker. If you are stuck on a certain part of your research, this program has different databases that help including ship passage lists, social security death records and other completed family trees. What is included all depends on how much you are willing to spend. The main idea of this program though is to enter all of your information into the computer. Do you remember all those books, papers and binders you have and the digging you do every time you want to find out a small fact? That is a thing of the past. All that information can be transferred to one small CD-ROM. The hardest part is finding the time to enter it all in; but when it is in, you can produce all the trees, lists and reports you want to look at.

Another way to straighten all those facts is to use Geni.com. This is a free online database that you can use to put a visual aspect to all your members. This way, though, you can divvy up the job of typing. This website allows you to invite anybody you want to visit and they can even enter information and pictures. Each person has their own "home" page and they are able to enter in their profile, their favorites, and even their contact information. All of this is optional and the contact information can be shown to all or hidden from view. The good thing about this is only the people that are invited are able to look at your tree. With this website, you are able to see the full tree or just the part of the tree that you are located on. My 67 year old father got me started on this so that should tell you it is very easy to use.

Now there are many other locations on the web to do the same thing, including ancestry.com. I myself have not used any others though so I would not be able to tell you how they work, if they are easy to work or even how they look. I am sure though, that they would work the same way.

If you are a stickler for the old fashion you can always keep with the binders. But in keeping with the computer theme on this article, you can use free downloaded information sheets that you can print out. Uftree.com has several different types that allow you to keep track of your research, your contacts and your sources.

What I would suggest if you stuck with the binder though, is make these sheets yourself on your Excel (or any other) program. This way you will not only be able to clean up your binder but you will be able to type the information out before printing it. This will prevent people generations from now trying to decipher your writing or trying to read from faded ink/pencil.

In this day and age if you are not transferring everything onto computers the information you want to preserve could become history. The history of your family is important to you so I suggest do whatever you feel would help. If you want to paint your family tree on the wall of your family room, then by all means, it's your house.

Learn more about this author, BL Williams.
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