IIGS(TM) - An Extended Family

An Extended Family
by Gloria D. Holback

The computer age has brought genealogy into a new medium. No longer are we required to spend hours of valuable time in travel. Today we only have to turn on our computer and vast genealogical resources are at our fingertips. According to Steve Case, President of America Online, during a recent press club meeting that was televised this past week. "At the present time it is estimated that only 20% of households in America have a computer in their home. However, it is also estimated within the next few years and by the 21st Century all of that will change. Almost every household in America will have some type of world wide web/internet communication product in their home, whether it is a hook-up to their conventional television set or a computer."

There are no oceans that can keep us apart when we are using this wonderful electronic tool. Our words, voices and images travel all over the globe. We are fast becoming one unified group working toward the same goals, finding our family histories and making acquaintances and friends across our countries and our world.

Not only can we talk with one another by way of a computer, but we can also send and see images of us and our families. Our North American Indians have a saying that is so true, "We are all one family." The computer age has certainly proven that in so many ways. I for one welcome all of my new family members throughout the world to the new age of genealogy. Our families are truly extended.

About the Author: Gloria Holback, born in Georgia, U.S.A. in the summer of 1942. She traveled throughout her childhood with her parents to Texas, Northern Georgia and Florida, finally settling on the West Coast of Florida. During her young adult years she lived in Japan, California and back to Florida, where she now resides with her husband, John Holback (Danish spelling of the surname is Holbak or Holbek). Gloria has spent the past eleven years researching her own family lines as well as doing work for clients on a limited basis. Her main focus of research has been Colonial America, Southeastern U.S.A., and American Indians of the Southeastern shores of North America. Although, new to the world wide web, all of perhaps one year, she has been very active on GEnie, Prodigy, and other bulletin board services in the U.S.A. Gloria's children are all grown and she has several grandchildren. Before becoming involved in genealogy she was an Interior Desi gner, Artist, Automobile Salesperson, Television Model, Executive Secretary to an Automobile dealership General Manager and Owner, a Doset in Bellum's Cars of Yesteryear, Sarasota, Florida. She studied writing in College and started writing as a teenager for the school newspaper. Though she has no formal training in journalism she loves to share knowledge with others, for her motto is "What good is knowledge if not shared?"

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