Online Roots: How to Discover Your Family's History and Heritage With the Power of the Internet (Paperback)

by Pamela Boyer Porter (Author), Amy Johnson Crow (Author) "WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR ANCESTORS?..." (more)
Key Phrases: family tree files, article title keyword, funeral home records, United States, New Mexico, Social Security (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Researching family history is the second most popular topic on the Internet (after sex). In Online Roots, Pamela Boyer Porter, a Certified Genealogical Records Specialist, explains how to search effectively on the Internet, how to assess the value of what you find, and the best way to make full use of the resources of the Internet to trace your family's history and heritage.

Topics covered include:

• Judging your sources
• Checking modern lists and resources
• Finding clues to primary sources
• Researching military records
• When an ancestor has a criminal record
• Locating photographs on the web

Researching on the Internet can be fun and challenging. Online Roots makes your search more effective and creative.

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Rutledge Hill Press (April 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401600212
• ISBN-13: 978-1401600211
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #186,384 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Online Genealogy PLUS Great Techniques, August 18, 2003

By A Customer

This work is one of the first that seems to approach the use of the internet as a great tool, while still supporting and instructing standard research techniques. Easy to follow and loads of examples make this book a useful helper with my own family research.
The variety of online sites is enhanced with actual case studies and sample screens for beginners. I would recommend this book for a novice or experienced researcher.

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the best thing available in this crowded field, October 15, 2004

By	Michael K. Smith (Gonzales, Louisiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Regular readers of my reviews (here and elsewhere) will know that I cast a chary eye on books that purport to introduce the reader to the miracle of "Internet genealogy." I've read and reviewed dozens of such titles from the viewpoint of a researcher of more than thirty years' experience (beginning in the days of spiral notebooks and 3x5 cards) who is also a thoroughly wired computer geek and a heavy user of the Internet. I have long maintained that online research is simply the (sometimes) more convenient continuance by other means of traditional, tried and true methods. There is no "royal road to genealogy," no universal database from which you can immediately download your entire lineage back to Adam. Most of the books I've seen fall into two categories: Introductions to traditional genealogy with a thin icing of information on genealogical software and Internet how-to, and "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Computers and the Internet"-type volumes that include specific genealogical applications as an afterthought. There are a few, like Elizabeth Powell Crowe's *Genealogy Online: Researching Your Roots* (1998), Matt Helm's *Genealogy Online for Dummies* (1998), and Pamela Hahn's *The Unofficial Guide to Online Genealogy* (2001), which actually are quite useful and are worth reading (though all three are inevitably becoming dated), but these are very much the exception. The rest are simply exercises in marketing.

Pam Porter is a Certified Genealogical Records Specialist, a very experienced author and lecturer who has edited the APG QUARTERLY and presently serves on the FGS Board of Trustees. Amy Crow, a Certified Genealogist, also is well-known as an author and speaker, has served on the boards of several national organizations, and chairs First Families of Ohio. (She also is the overall editor for this series.) And the acknowledgments section lists many other names that are immediately recognizable. Their stated target audience includes (1) those new to genealogy but seasoned computerists, (2) those experienced in family research but novices online, and (3) those new to both. In other words, almost everyone. But it's encouraging to note that the third paragraph includes the explicit warning, "No, it's not all online yet." Yes, field trips to courthouses and libraries and your local Family History Center are still necessary. But more and more information is indeed being made available online everyday, especially by government agencies for whom online public access is a great money-saver in terms of staff time. The authors point out, too, that much of what you'll find online, while not necessarily an answer to a specific relationship question, provides easily accessible contextual information -- county histories, details of migration patterns in previously unexplored states, the locations of railroad corporate archives, and similar data to help you to profitably focus your research. But "you won't be able to construct your entire family history on the Web." Planning your online research is not that different from planning a library or courthouse visit -- it's still a matter of defining goals, identifying which facts you need to uncover, finding the sources for them, analyzing the results, and recording and evaluating what you're learned - but now you're using search engines and "pathfinder" sites instead of (or in addition to) card catalogs and document indexes. When you do get ready to make a courthouse visit, the Web will assure you that you've identified the right one, and often will tell you whether they're likely to have the class of records you need, and for the right time period. Moreover, you can save on gas and stretch your research budget, and you can carry on your research on Sundays or in the middle of the night if you care to. Their recommended "Internet Research Log" is remarkably similar to the classic courthouse log we all use (or should). One of the best uses of the Internet, in my own experience, has been in locating other researchers with intersecting interests, something which was very time-consuming and very hit-or-miss in the old days. The chapters on "Finding People in the Modern Era" and "Sharing with Others" provide excellent guidance on carrying out such a quest as well as turning up those long-lost distant cousins your grandfather told you about. The U.S. census (and also, now, those in the UK) is largely available online these days -- the actual images, not just printed transcripts or extracts -- and much of that now is accompanied by searchable every-name indexes that far outstrip the old Soundex and Miracode files. Naturalization records and federal land purchase records are now coming rapidly online. So are local property records. And back runs of newspapers. And older military records and unit histories. And there's hardly a library anymore without an online-accessible catalog, which is a boon to Interlibrary Loan users. And yet, while outlining these exciting advances and interspersing the discussion with frequent screen shots from useful websites, the authors keep hammering on the important point: The essentials of research haven't really changed! You still have to think and analyze and evaluate! Although any book on such a volatile subject will begin to be out of date almost as soon as it's published, I have to say this is one of the best treatments I have seen.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good primer - - - I hope, April 13, 2006

By	Reading Fan "Romans 8:1" (Baltimore) - See all my reviews

I have to admit this book was a bit overwhelming for someone trying to get a handle on geneology, and just focusing on certain of his lineage without too many frills. This is not a criticism, however, since this book is supposed to be a reference book more than anything else, and the author is trying and succeeding in giving us as much information as she can. I did read it from cover to cover to get the lay of the land, and found it well-written, thorough, and careful in its exposition of the subject. It was recommended by the more general Geneology 101, and was a good follow-up. This book took 101 a step further in showing us how to take max advantage of the net and save some foot steps.

It was interesting to me that the author pursued so much detail about so much of her extended family, such as great-great uncles, and third cousins once-removed. I also was intrigued by her effort to get supporting information about the areas her forbears lived in, the geographical properties, the commerce going on there, the character and feel of the area, etc. It is more than I would want to go after, at least just starting; though it would be fun to have some of this background.

The biggest tips are to sign-up for a paid online service like ancestry.com, and to join a geneological society, even if only an online bulletin board set-up. Indeed, all roads seemed to end at ancestry.com as I found out. I would start out on a free website sited in the book, looking for something specific, and would be led to ancestor.com, with its notice of a 14-day free trial. Now that I've read Geneology 101 and Online Roots, I'll probably take advantage of that offer.

She also strongly recommended looking for work someone else has already done on your family tree. There are sites where you can get this, and again it looks like ancestry.com is the biggest. She also recommended free tutorial websites before getting started, and that might have been the best advice of all.

I believe I'm ready to start my journey and I'll update this review when I see how it goes.