Читать книгу Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy: The definitive reference guide to tracing your family history - Nick Barratt - Страница 106

Genealogy as a pastime is at its most popular in the twenty-first century, partly thanks to the wealth of resources that have been made available online to millions of people at the click of a mouse. Whereas family history was once the domain of the upper classes who had access to (or were keen to prove) their pedigrees, and die-hard genealogists prepared to spend hours scouring reels of microfilm in search of each new name on their family tree, now anybody with a vague interest in their roots, regardless of status or origin, can start investigating. Because there is such an enormous interest in the subject, there will always be somebody online who can be of assistance if you are struggling with your research.

There are literally millions of genealogy websites out there – just try typing ‘family history’ into Google and see how many hits you receive! This can make it difficult to know where to begin, so here we’ll de-mystify the process and highlight the most useful sites you’ll need to visit. Basically, the core resources you will be working from can be broken down into the following categories:

• Commercial or institutional websites supplying access to datasets, images of records, or indexes to documents (‘dataset’ websites)

• Websites of genealogical organizations that provide advice, or links to other resources (‘portal’ websites)

• Websites where you can link with other users and join social networks (‘network’ websites)