Since the creation of the Internet, a whole new world has opened up to genealogy researchers. There are thousands of official databases, indexes, records, maps and gazetteers available - as well as background and historical data, message boards, newsgroups, newslists and family trees - all necessary to further your work...... if only you knew where to find them!

There are also certain official and government databases that are available ONLY on the Internet.

There is much controversy surrounding what's on the Net and it truly is the 'Wild West' of research. There is the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly not to mention the downright falsehoods floating in cyberspace. The trick is to learn how to find the Good.

Your instructor is well versed with computers and the Internet having managed a Computer Training Department in the past. She also spends innumerable hours each day scouring the Internet for new web sites dedicated to safe and reliable research. Pat continues her own education and is almost always enrolled in one advanced course or another. These courses always involve using computers and the Internet so she is able to share her experience and new found knowledge with her students. She continues to share those Good web sites with you in each one of her courses.

While the Internet is not considered a 'source', it is a wonderfully sophisticated tool and you are severely handicapping yourself if you are not using it to it's fullest capabilities. Each one of Pat's classes utilizes the Internet and you will learn to access and use those numerous Good web sites to their fullest advantage.
 

Against All Odds
Your very existence depended upon your parents getting together at exactly the right time. And their parents. And their parents. Go back 20 generations, and you have over a million direct ancestors whose timing had to be just perfect to result in the eventual creation of you. It's enough to really make a person feel special, until you realize that there are more than six billion other people alive right now who overcame those same odds!