Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy, Second Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been using this book in a class I teach at the local Adult Education center. The class is 10 sessions of 3 hours each and the book provides a comprehensive overview on Genealogy on the internet. The author's information is well written and todate 75 students have enjoyed this book with me...

I purchased this used book from a bookseller at Amazon for a very low price although the shipping cost was a bit of a hit. The book was delivered quickly and in mint, "Like New" condition. No problems there.
The problem however (which is entirely my fault) is that the book was published ten years ago (in 2000). When you are talking about "online genealogy", it means much of the book material is now really obsolete in 2010. Even though the book is "long in the tooth" there still are a FEW hints for internet surfers who are brand new to online genealogy. Generally however, the book is extremely dated and not of much use to anyone with a little experience researching genealogy on the internet. One example: "Google Search" is hardly noted (it's included in a list of a half dozen other search engines and that's it).
Probably a good read 10 years ago but it's now "way over the hill". I should have checked more carefully before purchasing.

Online Genealogy is a fun hobby that is increasing in popularity. It use to be a hassle trying to contact libraries and record halls by mail or telephone.

The "Idiot's Guide..." will show you everything you need to know to get started setting up your family tree. Make sure you have as much detail, about your history, available when you begin your search, to make things easier.

If you already belong to a genealogy club, this book might seem redundant. But it is a nice reference to have when you don't feel like searching your bookmarks for a specific page.

I bought this for my mother, and she found it very useful. Of course she still writes half of her bookmarks down on paper.

I find that trying to get into genealogy is fairly easy & fun, but you can spend an enormous amount of time just getting started unless you have some guidelines. Where do you look for certain records; how do you find old Uncle Joe's third wife; etc? Even with helpful books such as the Idiots Guide, you will still find yourself spending lots of time searching through records, but at least you're being more productive because there are lots of hints & shortcuts. It's a great book to use along with an ancestry site.

This is a useful reference, but because of the nature of the Internet, the links outdate quickly. It desperately needs to be an online text that can be updated frequently and more readily accessed, as these are very long urls to type in in some cases (only to find the site has been moved). But wait, we have that online resource...it's called Cyndi's list. I haven't found anything in this text yet that was not more easily accessed on Cyndi's list.

Very informative for the novice Genealogist. Helpful hints of where to look for information both online and in the library.