The main internet tools for connecting to people are e-mail lists and message boards. Those are described in the Connect section. Search engines are invaluable research tools for the Internet and are described in the Search section.

Online Courses

BYU Brigham Young Univeristy Independent Study has some free online genealogy courses and tutorials at http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/special_offers

Maps

Although geographic names sometimes change over time, current maps are very useful in getting yourself oriented. Important Internet map resources are

• www.mapquest.com
• www.multimap.com
• www.streetmap.co.uk
• Map Libraries on the World Wide Web is at www-map.lib.umn.edu/map_libraries.phtml
• The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection is at www.davidrumsey.com
• Ancestry.com has hundreds of historical maps from around the world, including jurisdictional maps of every U.S. state.
  • http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/reference/maps/main.asp
• The Library of Congress historic panoramic map collection is at  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/pmhtml

Free Newsletter

Sign up for the free Ancestry Daily News at www.ancestry.com/learn

People Finders and Telephone Directories

Is a surname rare or common? In which parts of the world is a surname found? Use phone directories to answer these questions.

When I am given contact information for someone, I like to verify the information first with an online phone directory. This ensures that you do not incur expensive phone or mail costs by phoning the wrong number or sending documents to the wrong address.

Directories can get you in touch with unknown living relatives. To trace a branch of my family where there was no contact in over a hundred years, I searched the land records of the family farm. The farm was finally sold in the 1960's by a previously unknown relative in another city. A phone directory lookup found the phone number and a phone call confirmed that we were related.

The Yahoo People Search page to search for phone numbers or email addresses is at
people.yahoo.com

The Canadian phone directory is at
www.canada411.ca

British Telcom Directory Inquiries is at
www.bt.com

The Eircom Irish phone directory is at
www.goldenpages.ie/extra/phonebook.html

Free Web Sites to Publish Your Genealogy

Publishing family information on a web site provides a constantly available reference point for your genealogy. Once published, the genealogy can be discovered by unknown relatives using search engines. I have made many family contacts this way. Make sure that you include contact information including your e-mail address on your web site. Once people find your family information they need to get in touch with you. 

You can make you family tree available on the web with Ancestry.com's OFT Online Family Tree. With OFT you can directly type in your family tree information. If you already have your data in a GED file, you can submit it to http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com and have it published there. 

To request a free website at RootsWeb, go to accounts.rootsweb.com.

Language Translation

To translate web pages, go directly to Babel Fish at world.altavista.com

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