Genealogy and the Internet for Non-Techies

IIGS^™ Newsletter - September/October 1999
English ~ Dansk ~ Deutsch ~ Español ~ Suomi ~ Français ~ Nederlands ~ Norsk ~ polski ~ Português ~ Svenska

Genealogy and the Internet for Non-Techies

Wisconsin State Genealogical Society president Jack Brissee gave genealogists from his state, who are new to computer-assisted genealogy, good advice when he spoke in Jackson County, Wis., in September.
After outlining all the ways computers and the Internet help genealogists, he warned:
"All this can be helpful to you. Not a single one of them will do your genealogy."

Brissee, the founder of Computer Assisted Genealogists of Southern Wisconsin serves as chair of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and National Genealogical Society (NGS) Records Preservation and Access Committee. He's the recipient of the FGS George E. Williams Award for outstanding contributions to the Federation and its member organizations.
"Recognize that most of the data," said Brissee, "have no sources posted. So you don't know what the quality of the material is. Always check the sources yourself."
With that advice in hand, the new computer users gathered for the workshop also were encouraged to not be afraid of their computers.
"It's very seldom that you can't recover from a mistake you've made," said Brissee, who took the genealogists through the history of the Internet and explained how each facet---World Wide Web (WWW), email, file transfer protocol (ftp)---can help them in their search for ancestors.
Finally, Brissee shared some of his favorite web sites:
National Genealogical Society
http://www.ngsgenealogy.org
Federation of Genealogical Societies
http://www.fgs.org
Wisconsin State Genealogical Society
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wsgs/
National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.nara.gov
NARA Genealogy Page
http://www.nara.gov/genealogy
NAIL (prototype catalogue)
http://www.nara.gov/nara/nail.html
Library of Congress
http://www.lcweb.loc.gov
Library of Congress Online Catalogue
http://catalog.loc.gov
Library of Congress American Memories
http://memory.loc.gov

Dedicated Duo ~ Learning How To Search ~ If Your Ancestors Went to Church ~
Genealogy and the Internet for Non-Techies ~ Combining Forces ~ Help Wanted ~
Back to September/October Newsletter Table of Contents

Home Page ~ Global Village ~ IRC ~ Library ~ Newsletter ~ Projects Registry ~ University ~ FAQ ~ Listowners Team ~ Translation Team ~ Webmasters

Supervised by the IIGS™ Webmaster Team
Created & Maintained by the IIGS™ Newsletter Team

Revised: 11 October 1999