"Ancestry.com offers a variety of search options, but many of them are not immediately apparent, even to a seasoned researcher. This is a problem best dealt with by an expert, and in this Genealogy at a Glance, the noted Ancestry.com authority George G. Morgan offers tips and insights to help you get the most out of your time online with Ancestry.com. Under his guidance you?ll learn how to search all the databases at once, search a category of collections, or search within a single database. You?ll learn first steps and next steps, how to find exact matches and how to use wildcards, how to get the most out of the massive collection of genealogical records, how to add facts and narratives to the tens of thousands of existing family trees, and how to build your own family history. Ancestry.com uses special location searches and keyword searches, it has message boards for its millions of users, it has blogs, webinars, a learning center, guided tours, and video presentations?enough for it to qualify as an industry in its own right. It is thus an ideal subject for a Genealogy at a Glance presentation, which in four laminated pages allows you to cover the essential elements at a glance, giving you an insight into the byways of Ancestry.com that you would struggle with on your own. Thanks to Mr. Morgan, you now have as much useful information about using Ancestry.com as you?ll probably ever need" --from the publisher.

Updated edition: A genealogist’s practical guide to researching family history online while avoiding inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading information. The internet has revolutionized family history research—every day new records and resources are placed online and new methods of sharing research and communicating become available. Never before has it been so easy to research family history and to gain a better understanding of who we are and where we came from. But, as British genealogist Chris Paton demonstrates in this second edition of his straightforward, practical guide, while the internet is an enormous asset, it is also something to be wary of. For this edition, Paton has checked and updated all the links and other sources, added new ones, written a new introduction, and substantially expanded the social networking section. As always, researchers need to take a cautious approach to the information they acquire on the web. Where did the original material come from? Has it been accurately reproduced? Why was it put online? What has been left out and what is still to come? As he leads researchers through the multitude of resources that are now accessible online with an emphasis on UK and Ireland sites, Chris Paton helps to answer these questions. He shows what the internet can and cannot do—and he warns against the various traps researchers can fall into along the way.

This practical guide identifies the major websites and online sources of data available to family historians. It is ideal for both beginners and more experienced researchers as it explores the most useful sources and helps readers to navigate each one. The Genealogist's Internet features fully updated URLs and all of the recent developments in online genealogy. This fully updated fifth edition, endorsed by the National Archives, is the comprehensive guide for anyone researching their family history online. It covers: ·Online census records and wills, including the 1911 Census ·Civil registration indexes ·Information on occupations and professions ·DNA matching ·New genealogy websites and search engines ·Surname studies ·Passenger lists and migration records ·Information on digitised historical maps and photographs This book also includes the impact of blogging, podcasting and social networking on family history research, allowing family historians to find others with similar research interests and to share their results. Whether you want to put your family tree online, find distant relatives or access the numerous online genealogical forums, discussion groups and mailing lists, this book is a must-have.