Amen, Karen. Many of my students later have given up the hobby because the internet has failed to provide what they thought would be immediate answers. So many "pay-for" websites have been revealed to provide so few "answers", and those few only for ridiculously high prices, that folks who a) did not learn how to do basic and thorough research and b) are very busy trying to work and keep families going, simply give up the search, hoping for easier and less time-consuming methods. Considering that probably less than 5% of the research materials available to us yet appear on the Internet, most folks who are newer to the hobby find the censuses, give up those taken before 1850, look at some websites postings and shotgun statements of where to look further, and put it aside. I suppose the most fundamental rule that is NEVER learned by most genealogy buffs is that the time-tested research methods have changed not atall! The Internet is but one more tool to accomplish what we have always done before the "net". I advise students and all of those to whom I speak that they will be best served to procure any of the better "how-to-do" research guide books, and as they read it search on the net for the materials there recommended, making careful notes as to what they do NOT find there, leaving those omissions for later. The other most fundamental assumption we all need to remember (learn) is that genealogy is about "where", since it is at the "wheres" - where they lived - that ancestors left the vast majority of records of their lives. If we are not searching at the local level through societies, contacts, local publications, in addition to our census and military records, there is NO way we can even approach difficult "brick walls". No small measures of the available sources are available at the state's archives, especially at Virginia. In almost 60 years of research I have found that those who, for whatever reasons, are not able to afford or otherwise find the time to search or make contacts at those "wheres" quite usually find but a waning interest. I think there are as many "researchers" out there as always, however they (we) find it most difficult to communicate with those who seem to have but little interest in learning the fundamentals of genealogical research. Some of such basic rules are on the net now (and more will appear little by little), but without following a research plan as set forth in the "how-to" books, it will take years to ferret what has been made electronically available. If you open the back door and shoot at the woods, it is not likely that you will bag breakfast. On the other hand, if you go into the woods and hunt, the odds of gaining something to eat are greatly increased. Paul www.DrakesBooks.com -----Original Message----- From: Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family history. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of KAREN DALE Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 11:28 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Is Genealogy obsolete? Certainly internet traffic has slowed down in the last five or six years, and I do think it's true fewer and fewer "goodies" are being posted through Genweb pages and archives. However, to me the real value of the internet was the networking, the coming together of several people working on the same family, although perhaps in different branches. I'm a "whole family" historian--I can't seem to stop once I start on a family. Really obsessed with the "big" picture. I post these extensive family histories on Rootsweb--and I often get contacts from members of branches that are "lost" or sketchy. Just the other day I got an email from a man who said he'd quit working on our common family in frustration ten years ago--but he was thrilled to find I had his gggf connected in a tree. Now, I had all sorts of disclaimers saying I THINK he belongs here based on the following evidence--but with the additional evidence from my new contact, I've become surer and surer--and he says he's been inspired to go back to work on the family. There are always those of us who did the libraries and the microfilm---butted our heads against those brick walls (and as my father used to say, "Dummy, the wall doesn't bleed."). People who thought the internet was going to eliminate that have probably given up, gone off to new hobbies--but not all. And there are always new people whose "Oh, my God, you know who my grandfather was!" emails appear in my mailbox. Not obsolete--just no longer a passing fad the media hypes. But those of us who are serious are still out here--and there are always people for whom genealogy is a new interest. Karen Dale To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html