Genealogy has long been more than a hobby to more than a few people. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has tirelessly endeavored on a project called the “Ancestral File” which catalogues the entangled web of human families. With the advent of personal computers and Internet access, amateur family tree surgeons were granted previously unheard of admittance to sort and sift through public records with the selfsame accuracy and precision once solely afforded to major libraries and research centers—like the Mormon Church.
To construct one’s familytree, a variety of records must be purloined and perused—Social Security Death Indexes, National Immigration records, old chronicles of local newspapers, and U.S. Census records meld to form a heaping mound of pertinent available information. The problem, of course, becomes navigating through such treacherous and gridlocked waters. Genealogy websites like www.genealogy.com and www.ancestry.com provide consumers with updated and organized family history information. However, fees are charged for these resources. Consumer costs are determined primarily by service options—for instance: at www.genealogy.com, for annual payments of $200, customers are given Family Tree Maker software, access to all online records, membership with the World Family Tree (an ongoing global genealogy project), and technical support—a large price tag for extensive services.
For those with thrift in mind, bevies of free websites proliferate with enormous databases of official records and newspaper clippings. Access is free, but navigation is not as user-friendly, and the resources ordinarily have holes. For instance: if one wants to research passenger lists for ships departing from Palermo and docking in New York, certain trips and years could very well be catalogued, while others (due to time constraints, since most free family history websites are run by genealogy aficionados during spare time, not professionals with a budget) might be omitted. Basically, free websites provide volumes of genealogical information that require a finer degree of sifting than paying websites. The choice, as always, rests with you.
Family history websites link together branches of human ancestry by analyzing amazing amounts of historic public information. Digging through old newspaper wedding announcements and obituaries, immigration records (where physical descriptions, age, profession, and city of departure are routinely noted), census records, military service lists, and shoals of files on passengers aboard ships from abroad give professional genealogy enthusiasts a clearer picture of ancestral connections. In turn, this information, in some form, is passed down to consumers (whether freely or charged). Most websites contain search engines which afford neophytes a user-friendly option to uncover past and present relatives.
For family history buffs, the Internet represents an astounding accomplishment. Records and registers that were once solely kept at major libraries or at the Church of the Latter Day Saints’ project headquarters, fly wildly along cyberspace’s thoroughfares. And people without the time or inclination to pour over millions of pages of data can subscribe to online genealogy websites which do the grunt-work for nominal fees. With the help of technology, people can complete their family tree without budging from their swivel chair—and without the chore of becoming wealthy.
By Jean-Pierre Lacrampe