Genealogy Internet Introduction

Welcome to the Internet

The Internet has many tools to aid a genealogist in finding their family history. Today the internet is most useful for connecting with others who might have information on your family, sort of a collection of huge searchable bulletin boards. The Internet is also rapidly becoming a source for any other sort of information that can be typed or scanned. Look around, it is unpredictable what you might find.

The Big Sites

These sites are very comprehensive. When looking for information on the internet, here is a good place to start.

• Cyndi's List of Genalogical Sites on the Internet Cyndi started with a nice list of sites which just kept on growing. Now, not only does Cyndi have the most comprehensive and well organized list of sites, but she now has many excellent general information articles .
  Direct Links to my favorite of Cyndi's pages.
  • Military & Pension Records for Union Civil War Veterans - How to order from the National Archives.
  • Cyndi's Illinois Sites
  • Cyndi's Ships
  • Cyndi's Genealogy Home Page Construction Kit
• RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative
• ROOTS-L Home Page
  • United States Resources: Illinois - Roots-L
• Helm's Genealogy Toolbox
• Ancestry Home Town
• Ultimate Family Tree
• Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Home Page

Surnames

The most time efficient, productive manner to use the internet for genealogy today is to post your surname and scan lists for others researching your surnames. There are several flavors of lists. There are large databases of surnames, researchers, and, hopefully, location and time frame. There is a newsgroup dedicated to surnames, but looking at this newsgroup daily is not time efficient - use the database on the web. You can also post surnames by region. Check out USGenWeb for places to post surnames and also look for regional mailing lists. There might even be a mailing list set up for your surname. Names can also be run through a search engine such as Alta Vista.

• Search Engines RootsWeb - Includes an easy form for adding your Surnames to the Roots Surname List.
• Search All Surname Helper Sites
• Gene Stark's Name Index
  
• Genealogy Resources on the Internet - Mailing lists Look for a mail list for your surname.

Here are pages I have found on my surnames. Look for your surnames on lists of surname web pages or use the search engine below. (Yahoo is actually a directory, not a search engine, but after Yahoo is searched, you have an option to use Alta Vista and other search engines.)
• Bratton World Wide Clan
• Hollenbeck Genealogy - Rich Hollenbeck
• Hollenbeck Genealogy - Robert Kleopfer
• Hallenbeck Hollenbeck Genealogy - Matty Ross
• Andrews and Collateral Families Genealogy - Ruth K. Andrew - Includes Casper Halenbeck genealogy

How To's

• Other Helpful Sites ILGenWeb
• Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy "How-To" Guide

Organizations, Libraries, and Governmental Departments

• The Newberry Library - Illinois Sheet
• ACPL HOMEPAGE Allen County Puplic Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana
• National Genealogical Society - Home Page
• Illinois State Genealogical Society
• Kankakee Valley Genealogical Society
• Iroquois County, Illinois Genealogical Society
• South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society
• Chicago Historical Society
• National Archives and Records Administration
• General Information about the Narional Archives-Great Lakes Region
• Secretary of State Illinois Gateway
  • Civil War Database
• IRAD Archive Record Search
• UICU Library
• The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Historical Society
• Railroad Historical Societies
• General Commission on Archives and History; The United Methodist Church

Regional Websites

• Petit Canada Project Homepage - Petite Canada was a French Canadian settlement in Kankakee county
• Genealogy and Family History Research in Illinois Infobahn Outfitters Inc.
  • Land Sales in Illinois Infobahn Outfitter's page
• Ford-Iroquois-Kankakee County Genealogical Mail List This is a list for the discussion of any matter related to genealogy in Ford, Iroquois, or Kankakee counties here in Illinois.
• USGenWeb Project Includes Index of States
  • ILGenWeb Project - Includes a clickable map to other ILGenWeb counties , Illinois links , other helpful sites and more great Illinois genealogy information.
    • Kankakee, ILGenWeb
    • Will County, Illinois
    • Grundy County, Illinois
    • Livingston County, Illinois
    • Ford County, Illinois
    • Iroquois County, Illinois
    • Newton County, Indiana
    • Lake County, Indiana
  • Indiana GenWeb
  • New York GenWeb
• At Home in the Heartland Illinois History
• German Genealogy Home Page

Miscellaneous

• The Genealogy Home Page
• Journal of Online Genealogy The genealogy e-zine
• A Barrel of Genealogy Links over 400 A-1 genealogy Web Resources. - Wow!
• Genealogy's Most Wanted
• Welcome to Ancestors A PBS Series aired early 1997
• The Olive Tree Genealogy Homepage
• Genealogy Resources on the Internet - Intro Chris Gaunt and John Fuller have great lists of genealogy related internet sources including Mailing Lists
• Vicki's Home Page Genealogy Listservers, Newsgroups, & Special Homepages.
• The Genealogy Lady Ask questions and view previous answers.
• Karen's Genealogy Sources Includes a nice set of links, but most interesting in browsing is the Genealogy Program Reviews and Links
• Brother's Keeper A Geneology Shareware (not freeware) Program.
• Family Tree Maker's Printable abstracts for census
• The American War Library
• Civil War Page Many, many Civil War LInks.

Warning - the IRC, or Internet Chat Relay, is simalar to genealogy in that it is addictive and will gobble up your time. It is also great fun.
• Genealogy Forum, a genealogy channel on the IRC
• I.I.G.S. - I.R.C.

Comments?
Lee Hollenbeck,
lee@keynet.net