Introduction to the Internet ... for Family Historians
		by Eddie Spackman

Intro

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Preamble

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There has been a tremendous development of interest in FH research in the last 40 years. This is now aided and abetted by the Internet.

Some Documents and Information that previously required (say): membership of several FH Societies, 100 of miles of travel to examine records etc, an absence of good relevant books, (excluding Gibson guides) is now replaced by the Internet. This enables one to find information - not necessarily the same - from the comfort of ones own home.

This is especially valuable to the disabled, the old and to some extent the ‘poor’ - computers cost money.

Presumably we want to discover ANYTHING about previous generations of our respective families.

I am not doing an ‘on-line’ demo as is often done. So you will not be able to see what happens when the computer system crashes - as it sometimes does with all of us. (It happened to me the last time I gave a computer-aided talk at work using PowerPoint last Autumn!)

However, you WILL be able to see what is displayed on a computer screen as I shall be showing ‘screen-dumps’ (which may/may not be visible from the back reaches of the hall). My screen displays may not look the same as yours at home. They depend on:

• The software being used (Netscape, MS Internet Explorer, Opera, ...)

• The ‘resolution’ your monitor is set to run at.

The ‘standard’ a few years ago used to be 640 by 480 pixels. (Pixels = dots on screen.) With improved tehnology etc it is nowadays usually 800 by 600 pixels. (You, the user, can change the resolution.) Most modern Web-sites are desgihned for display at this resolution.

Talks on the Internet are now being given fairly regularly:

• Jocie here last Winter
• Peter Christian at SoG in the Summer
• Jeane Bunting at Slough - regretably I did not get there so I will have missed some tips!

FH software unrelated to the Internet is not covered - come to the next meeting:

Basic Questions?

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Some basis questions intended to be answered:

• What is the Internet?
• Does the Internet assist family history research?
• Now you've found the Internet, could you do without it?
• Does it cost much to set up?
• Does your telephone bill increase?

Questions you might ask?

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Answers to the following should be given:

• Is it worth it ?
• I already have a PC - is there enough on the internet for family historians to make it worth going on line?
• Is it only useful for research in America?
• How to find out if someone is already researching your family?
• You know and love the IGI; is that on-line? - meet FamilySearch
• How do you search the Internet?
• Everyone has heard about Email but what are Email discussion groups?
• Can I find information about specific areas or FH software or family history in general?

What I most wished to know

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Some of the following might answered:

• How to view the Web
• The difference between Netscape Communicator and Microsoft Internet Explorer?
• What is meant by 'browsing'?
• What are Favorites and Bookmarks? What do they do and how do you use them?
• How to enter web addresses?
• What to expect as the web page downloads.
• How to get my system set up
• Do not to believe anything without checking
  a member states: "One web site I found had every date as 1 January. Baptisms and marriages can just about be fixed but deaths???"
• That I should plan what to do before browsing.

Members Experiences

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One member stated:

• "I found Llandaff MIs on a Cardiff Records site, the stones themselves were destroyed in the war."
• "I found 4 marriages in Cook County (Illinois) for a rare surname. The site was mentioned in a conference and I tried it almost just to pass the time!!"

JARGON!

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Every 'interest' has its own jargon (as a shorthand) which has to be learnt - at some stage. The talk attempted to include explanations of some of the jargon.

The audience was invited to "Wave your arms" and shout JARGON whenever there was a term which was not understood!

Typical jargon is:

Thanks

Eddie thanks profusely all those who provided contributions - several by Email from overseas members of the BerksFHS.