Knowing where to start on your search for your family's elusive past is half the battle. Not all of us are so lucky as to know how we are connected to that past. This page is for those of us who have reached a stumbling block on the road to enlightenment.

    The other half of the battle is knowing what to do with that newfound and often hard-won knowledge, once we have wrested it from the grip of the past.

    Consider this page, then, as a series of signposts in the wilderness. My intention is to point you in the proper direction when you are lost and to suggest possible new avenues of inquiry when it seems you've reached a dead-end in your research.

    The focus of this information is aimed at the newcomer to genealogy, but perhaps there may be one or two things discussed here which may be new to the seasoned hand as well. The Internet is changing fast and new resources are coming online daily. You may find something here you too have never heard of before.

First Steps
    Getting started; "The longest journey begins with but a single step."

Social Security Death Index
    Using and following up on information culled from the Social Security Death Index.

National Archives Microfilms
    Using Federal Census records to rediscover your past.

(ILL) InterLibrary Loan
    Using InterLibrary Loan to further your researches.

Genealogy Periodical Indexes
    Using PERSI, the GPAI and AGBI indexes to further your research.

E-Mail Newsletters
    Electronic Newsletters delivered right to your mailbox.