There could be any number of reasons that you picked up this book. Maybe you’ve become curious about genealogy after watching a television show. Perhaps you’ve always been interested, but you didn’t have the time to pursue it until now. Possibly, you’re a student with a project to complete on your family history. No matter what the reason, you probably need some help getting started, and we’re here to help!

The amount of available family history resources has skyrocketed in the 19 years since we wrote the first edition of this book (boy, are we getting old!). This is an exciting time because scanned images of key records are coming online at an unprecedented rate. Also, technologies such as DNA testing have been refined and are now invaluable tools that complement evidence from paper records.

Although the technology and amount of material available has changed over the years, you still need a solid foundation for your research. We’ve written Genealogy For Dummies to give you the necessary resources and advice to balance online sources and DNA evidence with traditional research to ensure you are successful every step of the way.

If you’re a repeat reader of Genealogy For Dummies (previous editions were known as Genealogy Online For Dummies), we think you’ll be pleased to find all sorts of new and updated information, including how to use social networking for family history purposes and expanded coverage of DNA testing methods. And, if you’re brand new to genealogy, we think you’ll be equally pleased with the easy-to-understand directions and information about the resources that await you.

At this point, we feel obligated to give you a couple of warnings or reminders. First, genealogy is an addictive pursuit and a long journey. You might find yourself staying up all hours of the night chasing down that elusive ancestor. Please don’t blame us if you start falling asleep at work due to your genealogical research routine. Also, on a more serious note, keep in mind that online research and DNA testing are merely two tools among others for finding information about your family. To thoroughly research your genealogy, you must use a number of tools — many of which we talk about throughout this book.

Now that the disclaimers are out of the way, put the kids to bed, let your pets out, and boot up that computer. Your ancestors are just waiting to be found!

About This Book

If you type in the word genealogy into a popular search engine like Google, you’ll see millions upon millions of pages that mention the subject. In fact, at the time we wrote this, such a search returned 151,000,000 results. With so many choices, it’s impossible to know where to start without a map. That’s what this book is all about. Although we don’t cover every available resource, we do point you toward the sites and technologies that give you the best chance for researching many different family lines.

You’re probably asking yourself how this book differs from the many other genealogy books on the shelf. Some books tell you only the traditional methods of genealogical research that have you traveling hundreds of miles to visit courthouses and archives in other states. Unfortunately, these books neglect the many opportunities that online research and new technologies provide. Other books that do cover online genealogy tend to group resources by how users access them (all link-based sites are listed together, all subscription sites are listed together, and so on), rather than telling you how you can integrate the many online resources to achieve your genealogical goal. As genealogists, we understand that researchers don’t conduct searches by trying all the link sites, then all the subscription sites. We search by looking for people or places anywhere we can find.

Web addresses (or URLs) throughout the book are in a different font to set them apart from regular text. This way, you can easily see the sites we recommend that you visit to try something or read more online. Additionally, to make it easier for you to follow a set of specific instructions, when you should type something, bold type indicates what to type.

Foolish Assumptions

In writing and revising this book, we made a few assumptions. If you fit one of these assumptions, this book is for you:

• You’re psyched up and ready to jump into researching your family history with both feet.
• You have at least a little computer experience, are now interested in pursuing your family tree, and want to know where and how to start.
• You have a little experience in genealogy and some experience with computers, but you want to find out how to put them together.
• You’re an experienced genealogist or family historian and you’re looking for ways to make your research more efficient.

You can have a lot of computer experience and be a novice to genealogy or online genealogy and still benefit from this book. In this case, you may want to dive right into the chapters about strategies for finding online resources.

Icons Used in This Book

To help you get the most out of this book, we created some icons that tell you at a glance whether a section or paragraph has important information of a particular kind.

The Remember icon marks important genealogical stuff, so don’t forget it.

When you see the Tip icon, you know we’re offering advice or shortcuts to make researching easier.

Look out! The Warning icon indicates something tricky or unusual to watch for.

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes a description of how to use Helm’s Genealogy Toolbox as well as discussions of genealogy myths, charts, and forms, among other things. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and enter Genealogy For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

Where to Go from Here

Depending on where you’re reading this introduction, your next step is one of the following:

• You need to go to the front of the bookstore and pay for this book so that you can take it home and use it.
• If you’ve already bought the book and you’re at home (or wherever), you can go ahead and start reading in depth, following the steps for the online activities in the book as they come along.

We don’t expect you to read this book from cover to cover, in the order we wrote it. It definitely doesn’t hurt our feelings knowing you may skip through the sections looking for only the information that you’re interested in at a particular moment! Each section in each chapter can stand alone. If we think something relevant in another section can supplement your knowledge on a specific topic, we provide a note or reference telling you the other place(s) we think you should look. However, we tried hard to do this referencing in a manner that isn’t obnoxious to those of you who choose to read the book from cover to cover. We hope we’ve succeeded in addressing both types of readers!

Now that we’ve explained a bit about the book, are you ready to get started and to become an official genealogist? You might be asking yourself, “What are the requirements for becoming an official genealogist?” You simply need an interest in your ancestry and a willingness to devote time to pursuing information and documents. It’s time to dive in and start collecting the puzzle pieces of your family history and remember to have fun!