Inside This Issue
Research Aids
Virginia's Northern Neck
New Hampshire
Cleveland
New Book & Publication Acquisitions
Education
Winter 2002 Classes
Technology
Internet--Boon or Bane?
Personal Websites
Upcoming Events
Salt Lake Tour
Eastern Seaboard Tour
Thanks to:
Bill & Mary Eberle
Help Needed
Volunteers
Board Members
President: Gary Zimmerman
Librarian: Mary Stevenson
Treasurer: Ada Evans
Asst. Treasurer: Jack Seeley
Secretary: Carolyn Blount
Tech. Director: David Brazier
Newsletter Staff
Editor: Moira E. Connor
Technology Editor & Webmaster: Marge Jodoin
Contributing Editors:
Carolyn Blount,
Gary A. Zimmerman,
Mary Stevenson
Production Director:
Carolyn Blount
Submission Deadline:
Feb 1st for March 2002
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President's
Column
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The Internet:
Boon or a Bane
for the Genealogist?
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As we come to the end of the first year of the third millennium, I marvel at how rapidly the work of the genealogist has undergone change in a very short interval of time.
With the coming of the information age and the increasingly wide-spread use of the internet browser, the CD-ROM, and the art of desktop publishing, genealogical researchers have scores of new tools and data “sources” at their disposal.
Occasionally, people come to the library seeking assistance, telling a story that since they were unable to find something on the internet a record must not exist and they lament the resulting gap in their family history. Others stop in for help, convinced that they will never learn how to search for something in “cyberspace” (even if they don’t recognize that word for the world of computer accessible resources). Both groups of people benefit from forming better expectations of what is available and how to access it.
The internet is a tool for the genealogist, but it will never be the sole source for genealogical information. Just like the card catalog at a nearby library or the files at the county courthouse, it is another place to get clues about a family line, but you must rely on your own personal, growing sense of what is an acceptable level of confidence in the information you are getting.
The quality and accuracy of what you can find on the internet varies greatly and you must develop critical skills to avoid being misled by what you read. You must get a feel for the records that exist but have never been placed in a digital form. This is no different than learning what things have been microfilmed by the Family History Library and what records have not been filmed by the FHL. You develop a critical sense of what you can do with each resource at your disposal.
The Fiske Library will increasingly bring information to you about useful resources on the internet.
If you are anxious about using the internet, stop into the library and use our computer workstations under the guidance of one of our volunteers. You can get useful information for your family line at the same time that you are learning computer search techniques.
The internet is a boon because so many records in so many parts of the world are becoming available to you right here at home.
The bane of doing internet genealogy is learning how to evaluate the quality and accuracy of what you are reading, and learning when to recognize when you have to go directly to a different source for never digitized records.
Gary A. Zimmerman
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