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GENEALOGICAL SEARCH ENGINES: PART I

© Christine Sievers

This is where the fun begins. I can get lost for an entire day wandering through surnames. Surname searches are often the starting place for my research on the Internet. Finding a relative on the Web, distant or close, is a bonus well worth searching for.

Having moved from Ohio to California when I was 9 years old, I lost contact with all my cousins. This year I reconnected; I found a cousin's family tree site through my surname searches. We have been emailing back and forth, sharing family history, and filling in missing gaps to our family trees. The extra bonus is that she is willing to do look ups and obtain records for me, as well as share her copies of records. She is an angel!

Surname searches can also be used for "possibles." Although most of my searches turn up shared surnames with no apparent family links, I am compiling a record of some of the results in hopes that someday my expanded tree will meet up with them. But remember that any information you get about a surname is never hard fact until you obtain the necessary records - birth, death, marriage, etc.

Another aspect of surname searches is the ability to add your web page or contact information. Many of the engines allow you to add your information, or do it automatically once you have registered your pages with various WWW search engines, such as AltaVista.

You will run across many different types of surname searches. This article will concentrate on engines that bring up family tree information. There are engines that can connect you to other specialized data which I will cover next week. I like to take a sweep across my favorite engines every couple of weeks to check on updated information.

Here is a list of some good surname search engines to start with:

RootsWeb Surname List - This page has the link to add your surnames (read the "about" section first), and the surname search engine. I like this engine for its ease of use. It will bring up a reference to a surname with contact information or web page of submitter. You can also look at the other names this person submitted.

Family Tree Maker's Internet Family Finder - Probably the most information-packed search. It is updated frequently, but I found nowhere you could list your site. They seem to find them on their own, as my family tree information was listed. You can also look up CD information on your surname. Helpful, as I found a site that has free CD lookups for many of these CDs, Genealogy CD List.

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