Connect and Collaborate on your Search

The quickest way to make progress in genealogical research is to connect with someone who is further along or is more experienced than you are. Keep in mind that a large part of the fun of genealogy is the relationships you develop with people along the way. RootsWeb,which hosts the largest and most comprehensive collection of FREE genealogical resources available on the Internet, is a place for family historians around the world to share their work and connect with each other. In addition to the popular user-contributed databases, they offers thousands of mailing lists and message boards, a free newsletter for genealogists, and even access to server space so you can set up your own family history website. Here are the features

Mailing Lists — Two great newsletters are available (free) for your genealogical research. Our advice...subscribe to both. Subscribing to a mailing list is one of the best ways of connecting to people who share your interests. RootsWeb.com contains tips on using this unique site on subjects such as genealogical research, humor, readers' stories and tips, and other articles of interest to family historians around the world.

Message Boards allow genealogists with common interests to share their databases and common knowledge of branches of their family trees. How to Create an Effective Message Board Post has been established to assist you. Users can post their comments and questions in their communications with others who have similar interests.

At Surname Community you can join with your relatives around the globe in building and contributing to your surname World Tree. Here you can build Family Trees online, search for your ancestors, create a family web site, post messages, and many more family related functions.

WorldConnect, one of the most popular features at RootsWeb, is a database of family trees submitted by thousands of mostly amateur family historians. It is the single largest collection of family trees on the Internet. With your family tree posted here, other researchers with common ancestors can find you.

RootsWeb Surname List is a registry of more than 1 million surname entries submitted by more than 250,000 online genealogists. Here, you can post your family's surnames that you are currently researching. Associated with each surname are dates, locations, and information about how to contact the person who submitted the surname.

RootsWeb Review is a weekly e-zine that provides news about what is happening at RootsWeb, as well as information on its newest databases, mailing lists, homepages, and websites. It also includes tips on using the many resources, along with stories and research tips from readers like you. With everything RootsWeb has to give there's no reason not to take every advantage of its many resources.

Family Tree Magazine is a great resource for discovering, preserving and celebrating family history: America's fastest-growing hobby! This magazine covers all the areas of potential interest to family-history enthusiasts, reaching beyond genealogy research to also encompass ethnic heritage, family reunions, and historic travel.

Reunion.com is a great checklist for planning family or group reunions. It tells what must be done at every stage of planning and gives suggestions for; getting started, proper locations, notifying family members, paying, and planning activities. It is not only for family reunions since it can be easily adapted to the planning of any sort of gathering. Reunion.com is a leader in keeping people in touch online. Members can search for and find up-to-date personal user profiles and use our online communication tools to allow them to stay in touch with their ever-growing circle of important relationships as their lives change.

If you'd like to share your research with others on the internet, go to Family Search web site, then click on Share. Complete instructions are given for uploading your GEDCOM file to the system. GEDCOM stands for GEnealogical Data COMmunications and is a file format that allows genealogy files to be opened in any genealogy software program. This allows the sharing of data between individuals, regardless of the databases or programming languages being used. Amazon.com is the most widely used book seller on the Internet. An extremely large number of volumes are available on the subject of genealogy. As usual, The Generations Network has a great selection of reading material available. These can be purchased from The Ancestry Store.