The Genealogist

Genealogy Guide Offers Variety of Resources

By Andy West

One of the leading online services has launched its user-friendly genealogy site and comprehensive resources now available on RevieWizard.

�Our goal is to make genealogical research as easy as possible, and nothing could be easier than doing it from home. Our resources, which currently contain hundreds of articles and links are continually growing, make this possible.� said Andy West, a spokesperson for RevieWizard.

In the past, genealogical research has been a tedious undertaking, filled with much footwork and manual searching. The Genealogy Guide has changed all of that, with extensive databases that are searchable online, enabling users to perform genealogical research from the comfort and privacy of their own homes. The Genealogy Guide resources allow users to find U.S. Census records, as well as birth, marriage, and death records around the world. The site links to sources offering numerous scans of records and newspaper articles, compiled by historians and made available to members of sites like Ancestry.com or MyFamily.com. Additionally, these sites provides members with the tools necessary to quickly and easily build a family tree, as well as a reference database of family trees that have already been compiled, which could facilitate the research process. With the many resources it offers, The Genealogy Guide is the ultimate starting point for amateur genealogists.

However, online genealogical \”facts\” can be unreliable. The top five categories of genealogical information � place names, occupations, family names, first names, and dates � differ in their degree of reliability.

Source records are generally most accurate for the information they are intended to provide. To illustrate, death registrations or obituaries are more reliable for date and place of death, whereas the age or date of birth indicated can be inaccurate. Therefore, depending on the information extracted, the reliability of the same source reference can vary significantly.

Many amateur genealogists do not check source information but rather copy data and treat it as accurate. For instance, a marriage that some online genealogies indicate took place in Cleveland, Ohio actually took place in Cleveland, Tennesee - no one checked the registration, or even verified the actual state. This is not to say that all such information is wrong, but rather that a researcher is best advised to use this type of source as a guide only, and verify all data with vital records where possible.

One of the leading consumer-driven online communities, RevieWizard provides articles and links on thousands of products and services. From cheap vacations to home businesses to real estate investing, RevieWizard has the information you need! The goal is simple: to save you time and money by providing quality information on the issues that impact your life.

To find out more about The Genealogy Guide and other related services, including articles, forums, and links to great sites, please visit RevieWizard\’s genealogy page on the web.

About The Author

Andy West is a freelance writer for MediaChoice, Inc. MediaChoice owns and operates a product review site called ReviewPlace.

Do you ever finding yourself feeling like the Desperate Genealogist?

I don’t know about you but sometimes I wish that someone would come along with some fresh ideas on how to seek out some of our more elusive ancestors.

Over the past few weeks I have been making great use of a resource which is absolutely filled with ideas about searching for ancestors - some of them have made me go “hmmmm never thought of that!”. The eBook I have been using is The Desperate Genealogist’s Ideas Book which you can take a look at and hopefully be inspired by clicking here.

Deciding What To Include In A Family History

Just about every society in the world, at any time, has had its own historians. Whether the tribal elder who held closely the verbal history of a tribe or the stately scholar who kept the records, those who held the ties to the past were honored, revered and held in high-esteem.

So it is for many families where one person generally acts as the record keeper, the one who hangs tightly to documents, dates and scraps from the past that help define the family as a whole. Whether this person is simply the owner of the “family Bible” or a meticulous researcher with reams and reams of information on the family’s past this person too is an important “historian.”

Making the decision to take on this role for you family is a big one that shouldn’t be taken lightly, but it’s also one that’s loaded with fun and adventure.

Getting started can be a little overwhelming, so here are some ideas of things to include in a family history:

• Dates – Of births, marriages, divorces and deaths.
• Medical history – The importance of this is becoming more and more known as medical science realizes the genetic links to so many common illnesses. Morbid, maybe, but recording major illnesses and causes of death might just save a life at some point in the future.
• Accomplishments – If your great aunt was a world-class skater, write that down! Your own generation and the ones beyond will love to know this. No matter how insignificant on the surface, the accomplishments of your ancestors you uncover should be included.
• Professions, talents, likes, dislikes – As it is with accomplishments, so it is and perhaps more so for these things. The little details transform your ancestors from just a name into a person and keep their memories alive for generations and generations to come.
• Photographs – There’s more to a family than names and dates. A family is about people and photos allow people years down the road to make a real connection to the past.
• Report cards, travel documents and so on – Any major documentation about an ancestor’s past is worth keeping whether in its entirety or paraphrased in a “journal” about the family’s history.

The more information you can include in a family history, the better. Each scrap of the past preserved help keeps more of the family history alive.

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