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Genealogy Online
Find your roots! This effective hands-on resource explores the vast world of ancestry-related networks, Web sites, and online services, explaining which ones best suit your purposes. Learn to organize your search, where to begin, where to go on the Web, and how to use chat rooms, mailing lists, and Usenet effectively.
432 pages, Paperback
First published December 12, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 7, 2016
This how-to book on Genealogy gives you a thorough guide and details on everything online useful to your research.
January 2, 2017
Although this is an older edition of this book, much information is presented that is still current.
October 1, 2017
I have been doing genealogy for over 30 years using the computer. There are quite a few websites that she points out in her book that I had never heard of. Very useful book even for an experienced researcher.
October 25, 2022
It’s dated now, but I got a couple of good thoughts from it.
November 10, 2024
As another reviewer noted, it is dated, but still somewhat helpful.
August 18, 2017
A few problems and weaknesses -
- The revisions read clumsily in some places, as if they were cut/pasted in rather than rewriting the section. For example, I don't think there's anyone with access to a computer who needs to have email explained to them at this point in the game. There are quite a few places in the book where it feels like we've time-traveled back to 2000.
- As is the case anytime a book contains website information, a lot of the URL's are no longer accurate and a lot of the information on sites is already outdated. I don't know how this could be avoided by nature of the material, but it's still a big problem for this sort of book.
- Since the focus of the book in on-line activity, I don't think nearly enough emphasis was putting on virus protection, avoiding malware, and not putting unproven information on line as fact. While the author does touch on respecting the privacy of living people or not posting other people's contact information without permission, it wasn't nearly enough.
- Software recommendations are Ancestry.com heavy. For example, Legacy, which is a very good software program (and offers a free version that is more robust than most people need) is mentioned only by name in passing.
Some strengths --
- Contains good overviews of sources for genealogy classes, workshops and conferences.
- Good explanation of social media use in genealogy, including one of the ore lucid descriptions of how to use Twitter I've seen.
- Strong sections on using local and regional databases and libraries, Ellis Island Online, Library on-line catalogs, obituary databases, etc.
- Good sections on ethnic resources (including the first time I've ever seen Romani, Arab or Hmong sources listed.)
The author evangelizes hard about DNA use in genealogy. I know it's popular, but I'm not convinced the matches it claims to provide are worthwhile. Admittedly, I'm biased against it, so I thought she should have been forthright about the business model of DNA sites and how they really make their money (Let's face it, you're the product, not the customer to them.)
Much of the material was too basic for my use--I've been at this crazy hobby for over a decade--but I think it's a good book for someone who is just getting into the hobby as long as they realize that anything having to to with the Internet's fine deatils will be obsolete before its published.
- The revisions read clumsily in some places, as if they were cut/pasted in rather than rewriting the section. For example, I don't think there's anyone with access to a computer who needs to have email explained to them at this point in the game. There are quite a few places in the book where it feels like we've time-traveled back to 2000.
- As is the case anytime a book contains website information, a lot of the URL's are no longer accurate and a lot of the information on sites is already outdated. I don't know how this could be avoided by nature of the material, but it's still a big problem for this sort of book.
- Since the focus of the book in on-line activity, I don't think nearly enough emphasis was putting on virus protection, avoiding malware, and not putting unproven information on line as fact. While the author does touch on respecting the privacy of living people or not posting other people's contact information without permission, it wasn't nearly enough.
- Software recommendations are Ancestry.com heavy. For example, Legacy, which is a very good software program (and offers a free version that is more robust than most people need) is mentioned only by name in passing.
Some strengths --
- Contains good overviews of sources for genealogy classes, workshops and conferences.
- Good explanation of social media use in genealogy, including one of the ore lucid descriptions of how to use Twitter I've seen.
- Strong sections on using local and regional databases and libraries, Ellis Island Online, Library on-line catalogs, obituary databases, etc.
- Good sections on ethnic resources (including the first time I've ever seen Romani, Arab or Hmong sources listed.)
The author evangelizes hard about DNA use in genealogy. I know it's popular, but I'm not convinced the matches it claims to provide are worthwhile. Admittedly, I'm biased against it, so I thought she should have been forthright about the business model of DNA sites and how they really make their money (Let's face it, you're the product, not the customer to them.)
Much of the material was too basic for my use--I've been at this crazy hobby for over a decade--but I think it's a good book for someone who is just getting into the hobby as long as they realize that anything having to to with the Internet's fine deatils will be obsolete before its published.
August 29, 2015
I found this to be a helpful book that featured many resources that would be useful to anyone conducting genealogy research. Like many basic genealogy books, it was divided into several sections including Basics, General Genealogy, and The Nitty Gritty: Places to Find Names, Dates, and Places. Since the focus of this book is online resources it reviewed over 100 genealogy websites. Many are the common ones such as FamilySearch and Ancestry.com, but there were also some obscure ones that are specific to a location. I found it useful to jot down those sites that seem useful to my family research and added them as hints on my main page of Ancestry.com.
January 15, 2016
A handy book for getting started on researching genealogy online however I have come across many other books that are much more useful. A significant failing in this book is that many of the URLs mentioned are no longer correct which is frustrating as this is a huge part of what this book offers its readers. Having said all this I did find some useful links to blogs, podcasts and research forms by reading this book.
February 23, 2016
It's a good book and I would like to be able to understand it a little better
I was impressed by the author and wish I was better at this stuff but I am not. I am sure that if there were more places that were free I would like it better
I was impressed by the author and wish I was better at this stuff but I am not. I am sure that if there were more places that were free I would like it better
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November 23, 2008My copy is the 6th edition published in 2002.
February 4, 2009
A good compendium of links. This is really just a good reference book that would be better suited to a good website. But then the author wouldn't get paid. Worth a good browse.
July 15, 2011
Good information, although sadly it hasn't seemed to make much difference to my skill level in this field of endeavor. Maybe over time?
February 29, 2012
Great reference book
February 10, 2013
This is a good reference point for online genealogy sources. Crowe gives the reader a short synopsis of each site and provides examples.
September 20, 2015
Less how-to and more a guide to resources.
June 3, 2016
Very informative and helpful!
July 21, 2019
Bought the book; how's that for saying it's useful.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews