CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: INTERNET OFFERS PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITIES TO CLIMB YOUR FAMILY TREE (COLUMN 40)

CYBERTIP: The Southeast Missourian's hands-on Internet training sessions have been extremely popular. Out of six sessions scheduled, 14 open spaces remain June 17, from 10 to noon. Each session is limited to 24, so registrants will have their own computers. Call 335-6611, Ext. 121 to register as soon as possible. There is a $5 fee. All those registered for the sessions June 5 and June 10 should have received a letter of confirmation. Another free general one-hour Internet information session will be held June 12 at the vocational-technical school from 7 to 8 p.m. To register, call 335-6611.

Rather than hunting through dusty, yellowed pages, genealogists are finding a growing number of databases are available on the Internet. These databases offer access to millions of names, often in a searchable format.

Now you can chase your roots with your mouse. Our first stop is

http://www.ancestry.com

Joni: Ancestry.com boasts of 20,000 or more visitors a day. We were the 286,717th visitor since May 19. You can search more than 52 million names free. But you need a library card subscription to have unlimited access to the entire collection. The charge is about $5 a month and you get more in-depth materials like cemetery, church and early American immigration records.

Peggy: Among free records is the Social Security Death Index, a list encompassing 51 million Americans. You can also search the American Marriage Records, which lists nearly 75,000 American marriages before 1800; the Geographic Reference Library, which identifies current and/or past names for every place in America; and the American Biographical Library, a sample of biographies of nearly 2,000 prominent Americans born before 1880.

Joni: Let's look at the SSDI. Here you can find a Social Security number in addition to dates of birth and death and hometowns. While many reasons exist why ancestors might not be in the registry, it's a good place to start, especially for those with unusual last names. Of course, this only covers fairly recent ancestors since the Social Security Administration hasn't been around that long.

Peggy: You can also search family trees of fellow family history enthusiasts throughout the world through GEDCOM files. You can either search the tree or contribute your own family tree.

Joni: Their goal is to bring your ancestors to your desktop. A recent C-NET article about the web site says success stories abound. For example, a man had been doing family research for nearly two years, with little success. But using immigration records available over the Internet, he was able to trace back to an eighth-generation grandfather. Not bad. Next, let's visit RootsWeb at

http://www.rootsweb.com

Peggy: RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative has two missions -- to make large volumes of information available to the online genealogical community at minimal cost and to provide support services to online activities like Usenet groups.

Joni: They have 262,000 surnames you can search. If you find a match, you can learn who submitted the name.

Peggy: In other words, it might be possible to find someone who has already done research for your family. Hopefully you are related to one of the 34,000 submitters. That's my way of doing research.

Joni: One group well known for excelling at tracing family history is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At their site -- http://www.lds.org -- they offer the first steps in tracing your family history and other advice on getting started. We didn't find a lot of information online.

Peggy: Next, let's look at Genealogy Online at

http://www.genealogy.org

Coming to you from California, Genealogy Online links you to lots of related sites including the National Genealogical Society. You can take a basic home-study course in genealogy. You can also find reference materials, including a beginner's genealogist guide to the Internet.

Joni: This might be a good starting place to get a feel for what's out there, including suggestions on where to find additional information. You can order charts and forms and other genealogy accessories.

Peggy: Another resource is the Family Tree Maker at

http://www.familytreemaker.com

This site offers a 1,200-page genealogy how-to guide to help you set up a family tree. These people are trying to sell you a CD, but they do provide some free tips and guides to sharpen your genealogy skills.

Joni: Using the FamilyFinder Index, you can search 123 million names from census records, Social Security death records, marriage records and actual family trees. They say about 20 percent of the people who have ever lived in the United States are listed here.

Peggy: You can create a home page for your own research and look at pages other researchers have posted. You might find someone else researching the same line.

Joni: The Illinois Secretary of State's office is highlighting a database of Illinois Civil War veterans. Any of 250,000 men who volunteered for the Union Army can be found in this database. It could lead to other information housed in the state archives, including physical descriptions.

http://www.sos.state.il.us

Peggy: Prior to this database, researchers had to consult a card catalog index. Now it's available online, free of charge, 24 hours a day.

Joni: The National Park Service is working on a national database that eventually will list all soldiers who served in the Civil War. The names of 230,000 black soldiers are already online. Find this site at

http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/usct.html

What's your favorite genealogy site? E-mail us at clicksemissourian.com

See you in Cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor, and Peggy Scott is graphics editor at the Southeast Missourian.