Ancestry.com

I spoke to a guy a while back who said that family history meant absolutely nothing to him.  I was amazed, not because he's not entitled to his opinion, but I have a such a burning desire for the subject.  Perhaps it's due to my not having known any of my grandparents (the last one died when I was five months old). 

So, I have an Ancestry.com account and continue to build my family tree and share it with those who are interested.  In case you didn't know, Ancestry.com is owned by the LDS Church.  They take genealogy very seriously as they believe in the "baptism of the dead" whereby the souls of their ancestors can be "saved" after they die.  (Please correct me if I'm not right about this).

It is my understanding that Ancestry.com are busy cataloging all sorts of records throughout the world, then making them available on their website.  One can pay monthly or annually.  The more-expensive World Explorer membership gives one access to records outside the U.S.A.  But it's a hit-or-miss situation.  I buy a World Explorer membership once or twice a year, then hit it hard.

Of course, when searching, it helps to have the right information.  And, for surnames that are often misspelled, one should check the "Soundex" box that results in similar-sounding names being included in the results list.  And don't forget that even census enumerators misspelled names and made other mistakes--so be ready to do a lot of interpolating.

A neat feature of Ancestry.com is that you can do a search for a person, then (on the left-hand panel) choose "Family Trees."  Here you can review other researchers' family trees, although you won't see info on living people. 

I've found so many people and surnames in my family tree--pleasant little surprises.  No famous people yet, but that will happen.  And the tree grows exponentially with each generation that's added.

In some small way, I think it's nice to know about these folks coz, if we ever meet up, I can say, "Oh, you're my half first cousin, six times removed, who owned a saloon in Chicago and whose wife was run over by a train!"  That would be a good conversation starter.