surfnet 3078 960301 Surfing the Net for Relatives +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ SURFING THE NET FOR RELATIVES -----------------------------------------------------------------------+ A JewishGen InfoFile 2nd Revision By Paul Blumstein I originated an interesting genalogy technique that has yielded some success for me and others and may help some of you: net surfing. With so many people joining the net, some are bound to be related. Unfortunately, there isn't a master directory of everyone on the net. There are quite of number of directories, each containing some portion of people on the net. Some of these require that you know what organization or domain the person that you are looking for resides at. But some of them do not. I've tried quite a number of services and I will present those that I feel is of the most value. The information given here assumes that you have access to the World Wide Web and are familiar with using a browser. If not, there are many people nearby who are happy to help you! This technique works best if your name isn't extremely common. (Actually, I'd hate to try to do any family history if my name was Smith, Brown or Cohen). Use these directories to find people with the same last names as those that you are researching. When you get a hit, write to these people, explain what you are doing plus a skeleton outline of that branch of your family. Ask them whether any of that information sounds familiar. Ask them to ask an elderly person in their family if this information rings a bell. Many of the people on the net are college students who do not know their family history, but are very curious and will find out for you. I have found two second cousins and several more potential relatives using this technique. One of the "problems" with the WEB is that there isn't a very good white pages service to find people. Make sure to use several directory services to give you the most possible coverage. There is a company called Four11 that has the largest directory service. Send mail to info@four11.com for information and a signup sheet. Once you've signed up (it is free), you get a password that you can use to do unlimited searches by either the WWW or e-mail. Alternatively, go directly to their homepage: http://www.Four11.com Other good directory services are at: LookUp! http://www.lookup.com Internet Address Finder http://www.iaf.net WhoWhere? People Search http://www.whowhere.com There is also an MIT mail server that tracks people who have submitted articles to Usenet. Send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu and in the body of the mail, include one line that says: send usenet-addresses/fenstemacher Happy Hunting! Paul ------------ [3Mar96pb]bk Copyright 1996 by JewishGen, Inc. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+