Searching for Family Roots
AOL Black Voices,
When Angela Bronner of New York decided to research her family genealogy, she didn't grab a plane and a fly off to comb dusty records in a clerk's office in Savannah or Athens, Ga. or in Itta Bena, Miss, where her grandparents originated. Instead, she sat right down at the computer and pulled up a genealogy Web site.
"It was very easy to use and navigate," Bronner says. "You just plug in information about your family and the computer does the rest for you." It's exactly that ease and availability that is attracting more Americans as genealogy sites tap into public records and make them available online. Today some 73 percent of Americans are interested in family history, according to genealogy experts.
"Family history is continually changing as technology increases," says Mike Ward, public relations director for Ancestry.com and The Generations Network. "In the past few years, technological advances that simplify and streamline digitizing and indexing of historical documents have combined with the ease and power of the Internet to provide avenues into family history that were unthinkable just 10 years ago."
"Just in the last year, almost three million family trees created and almost 2 million photos were uploaded on Ancestry.com," he said. In March 2007, the site received some 4.5 million unique site visitors and 230 million page views. In the past few years, science, in the form of ancestral DNA testing, has also become an integral part of family history.
To satisfy this demand, a growing number of Web sites offer access to family information in online databases. For example, the Church of the Latter-day Saints, which has been compiling genealogical information for more than 170 years is said to have one of the largest baptism, marriage and burial databases with 60 million records. It recently joined with other organizations to put a huge cache of family information online at Familysearch.org.
But there are others. If you are a professional or amateur genealogist looking for a place to start to research your roots, here's a list of the top sites. Some are free, others are not.
The USF Africana Heritage Project is a free all-volunteer project and Web site sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies at The University of South Florida. The site aims to find records that document the names and lives of slaves.
Afrigeneas is a is a site devoted to African-American genealogy and focuses on African Ancestry in the Americas.
Ancestry.com broke news this year with the story the Rev. Al Sharpton's ancestors were owned by the family of the late reformed segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond. They also traced Barack Obama's roots back to his mother's Irish ancestors. Both events served to highlight the site's comprehensive area for researching African-American ancestry, countering oft conventional wisdom that genealogical records are nonexistent for descendents of slaves. The site touts its access to the U.S. Census collection from 1790 to 1930.
In the past year, Ancestry.com simplified online family-tree-building tools and made available major releases of digitized, indexed and searchable historical records that allow anyone to build their family tree then locate the census and other documents offering clues about their family members.
Ancestry.com is also part of The Generations Network, which also owns Roots Web, a free genealogy community that also hosts various genealogy groups and projects, like WorldGenWeb, a nonprofit volunteer organization that offers free use and access to public domain genealogical information.
Cyndi's List is an extremely well-categorized and cross-referenced index to just about every genealogical resource available on the Internet. Start here to see what resources are available.
Family Search this nonprofit service, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this database combine World Vital Records, worldvitalrecords.com, a site that has more than 100 million names in databases worldwide; Footnote, a tool that allows users to interact or collaborate with others to share their findings, like family photographs and other documents.
Genealogy.com offers a wide range of family and local histories, vital records, military records and much more.
For DNA testing:
Africanancestry.com sells DNA-based genealogy tests that can identify what part of African someone's ancestors came from.
In fall 2007, Ancestry.com will offer a DNA test and an extensive database of DNA test results to help users find others to whom they are genetically related.
"It was very easy to use and navigate," Bronner says. "You just plug in information about your family and the computer does the rest for you." It's exactly that ease and availability that is attracting more Americans as genealogy sites tap into public records and make them available online. Today some 73 percent of Americans are interested in family history, according to genealogy experts.
"Family history is continually changing as technology increases," says Mike Ward, public relations director for Ancestry.com and The Generations Network. "In the past few years, technological advances that simplify and streamline digitizing and indexing of historical documents have combined with the ease and power of the Internet to provide avenues into family history that were unthinkable just 10 years ago."
"Just in the last year, almost three million family trees created and almost 2 million photos were uploaded on Ancestry.com," he said. In March 2007, the site received some 4.5 million unique site visitors and 230 million page views. In the past few years, science, in the form of ancestral DNA testing, has also become an integral part of family history.
To satisfy this demand, a growing number of Web sites offer access to family information in online databases. For example, the Church of the Latter-day Saints, which has been compiling genealogical information for more than 170 years is said to have one of the largest baptism, marriage and burial databases with 60 million records. It recently joined with other organizations to put a huge cache of family information online at Familysearch.org.
But there are others. If you are a professional or amateur genealogist looking for a place to start to research your roots, here's a list of the top sites. Some are free, others are not.
The USF Africana Heritage Project is a free all-volunteer project and Web site sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies at The University of South Florida. The site aims to find records that document the names and lives of slaves.
Afrigeneas is a is a site devoted to African-American genealogy and focuses on African Ancestry in the Americas.
Ancestry.com broke news this year with the story the Rev. Al Sharpton's ancestors were owned by the family of the late reformed segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond. They also traced Barack Obama's roots back to his mother's Irish ancestors. Both events served to highlight the site's comprehensive area for researching African-American ancestry, countering oft conventional wisdom that genealogical records are nonexistent for descendents of slaves. The site touts its access to the U.S. Census collection from 1790 to 1930.
In the past year, Ancestry.com simplified online family-tree-building tools and made available major releases of digitized, indexed and searchable historical records that allow anyone to build their family tree then locate the census and other documents offering clues about their family members.
Ancestry.com is also part of The Generations Network, which also owns Roots Web, a free genealogy community that also hosts various genealogy groups and projects, like WorldGenWeb, a nonprofit volunteer organization that offers free use and access to public domain genealogical information.
Cyndi's List is an extremely well-categorized and cross-referenced index to just about every genealogical resource available on the Internet. Start here to see what resources are available.
Family Search this nonprofit service, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this database combine World Vital Records, worldvitalrecords.com, a site that has more than 100 million names in databases worldwide; Footnote, a tool that allows users to interact or collaborate with others to share their findings, like family photographs and other documents.
Genealogy.com offers a wide range of family and local histories, vital records, military records and much more.
For DNA testing:
Africanancestry.com sells DNA-based genealogy tests that can identify what part of African someone's ancestors came from.
In fall 2007, Ancestry.com will offer a DNA test and an extensive database of DNA test results to help users find others to whom they are genetically related.
2006-01-10 16:10:49
Black Oral History Project
It's About Family
AP
Sandra Jamison, author of "Finding Your People: An African American Guide to Discovering Your Roots" says "Don't forget the reason you are doing this."