Finding Your Roots Online

See Larger Image	Manufacturer: Betterway Books Written By: Nancy Hendrickson Average Customer Rating:


Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 025.069291072 EAN: 9781558706354 ISBN: 1558706356 Label: Betterway Books Manufacturer: Betterway Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 240 Publication Date: 2003-05 Publisher: Betterway Books Studio: Betterway Books
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Editorial Reviews: While other guidebooks to online genealogy provide a multitude of Web sites, none of them tells readers how to use and analyze the sites themselves. The first book in the Family Tree Magazine Library, published by America's most popular family history magazine, Finding Your Roots Online breaks new ground in offering readers a step-by-step reference, with real examples, for using the Internet effectively in genealogical research. Nancy Hendrickson's structured, easy-to-follow approach covers the basics of sound genealogical research, then launches readers online armed with the proper tools for getting the most success with the least amount of frustration. They'll learn how to get the most out of Internet resources and recognize when a research problem can't be solved online. Finding Your Roots Online is the first step-by-step guide to getting results from the online genealogy boom. Not just another list of sites, this book reveals the strategies for successfully researching one's family tree in the forest of Web sites, databases and search engines. Readers will learn how to be an "Internet detective" and use today's technology to find their family's past. GENEALOGY Genealogy is the second-most popular subject on the Internet - after sex - as shown by the response to the new Ellis Island Web site. The most popular launch in Internet history, the site attracted more than 2.5 billion hits in its first year. But with the exploding popularity of genealogy online, family history researchers need help picking the best sites and using them to trace their roots. With more than 5 million genealogy sites now crowding cyberspace, how can readers sort through them all and select the handful that have their ancestor answers? Where do they even start? This book shows them how.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Not bad -- but not what it's advertised to be Comment: With each year, the World Wide Web becomes, more and more, the venue of first resort for family researchers -- especially for novices with insufficient background in traditional research methods, who often do not understand that the Internet hasn't made genealogy "easier," just more convenient and much less expensive. I've been a heavy user of online resources for a decade and a half, but I still make personal visits, legal pad in hand, to rural courthouses and cemeteries. I also have reviewed (in several publications) a considerable number of "Internet genealogy" how-to books over the years and I have found that many actually use that phrase only as a marketing ploy, devoting most of their attention either to genealogical methods in general or to computers and the Internet in general, not to the use of the Internet in family research. On a purely quantitative basis -- counting the pages, that is -- this volume gives about 25% of its space to traditional genealogical subjects (family group sheets, visiting a library, the nature of "courthouse records," analysis of evidence, publishing a family newsletter, etc.), and about 30% to discussions of computer issues and the Internet (how Google works, why you should make backups of your data, getting an email account, finding an ISP that will include free web page space, and so on). This leaves only about 45% of the book to actually cover the use of computers and the Internet in pursuing genealogical research. As with most of its predecessors reviewed in this column, what the author has to say is actually worth reading and her advice, whether on research methodology or on making your way in cyberspace, is generally sound. But what the title refers to comprises less than half the book. It may also be worth noting that the author's principal qualification for writing seems to be that she is a frequent author for the print edition of FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE and a regular columnist for the magazine's online newsletter, and that that publication now owns Betterway Books. Customer Rating: Summary: Opening a whole new world Comment: I had sent a copy of this wonderfully informative and well written book to 6 of my relatives and friends hot off the press. My sister, who has lived out of the country for some 35 years and having returned to her root country, wanted to learn more about our family. I encouraged her and was thrilled to be able to send her a copy of Nancy's book. This was back in October, 2003. Since that time, its been almost a miracle of sorts...following the information and suggestions in Nancy's book, my sister was able to get in touch with our father's cousin, a college professor, only to find out that he, too, had been trying to find our family! The two of them have been sending emails back and forth since October, exchanging and sharing information, checking out family burial locations, sharing pictures, and this has opened a "whole new world" for both families. We are even planning a reunion of sort as early as next summer. We have so much gratitude to Nancy Hendrickson for embarking on this endeavor of educating those of use who are not all that savvy with the internet but also showing us that searching for one's roots on or off the internet is not as complicated as one would believe and most of all, the rewards. My family and I recommend highly embarking on your own search for your roots starting with this book, almost a wisdom of pearls so to speak. Customer Rating: Summary: Climbing Your Family Tree, Exploring Your Roots Comment: Finding Your Roots Online is a MUST read for anyone who wants to use the Internet to climb their family tree. The book begins with computer and Internet basics, then moves into a detailed explanation of the four most valuable search strategies. Each strategy section is accompanied by real-life searches, along with the best Web sites for specific types of research. My favorite chapter was the one that showed how to move easily back and forth between the strategies in order to tease every bit of genealogical information out of each site. If you follow along with each search, you're sure to find several of your own ancestors. Ms Hendrickson's great experience, practical approach, and deep interest in geneology and history shine through these pages, lighting the way for beginner and experienced searchers alike. Customer Rating: Summary: A straightforward guide for the novice genealogist Comment: Finding Your Roots Online is a straightforward guide for the novice genealogist to utilizing the wealth of resources the internet has to offer those seeking to find out more about their family roots. From learning how to read pedigree charts; to conducting family interviews; to discerning which Internet resources are reliable; to guidelines for accessing military, marriage and land records, and much, much more, Finding Your Roots Online is a solid and highly recommended genealogical research resource for amateur and professional genealogists alike. Customer Rating: Summary: It really is easy to eat an elephant! Comment: This is the premise of author, Nancy Hendrickson and she shows the genealogist how to take one small bite at a time and really learn the ropes of internet research. From the first three chapters in which she shows the correct way to use charts, what is available on the net and how to organize all those bits and pieces of info to the final chapters of doing a real search the book is full of marginal icons alerting the user to content. Each chapter concludes with a checklist and summary. As an educator I cannot recommend the format of this book enough. My copy is already highlighted and getting rat-earred from frequent use. Follow chapter by chapter and you, too, will have acquired expertise on the net and new ancestral information. More Reviews