----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Hdanw.... 
  ....
  If you do not subscribe to Ancestry Daily News, which is free to all,  
  especially genealogists, I urge you today, Sept 2,  to read the column  about the 
  subject.
   
  Here is the URL for the daily news   _http://www.ancestry.com/dailynews_ 
  (http://www.ancestry.com/dailynews) 
   
  If you have time to internet, you really should subscribe.  Every  weekday 
  there is a very valuable column by a professional genealogist-writer  about some 
  important event or some important technique which will sharpen your  
  skills--and we all need that kind of knowledge.  And there is the ability  to print 
  out the ones which are of especial interest to you--I print out a LOT  of them.
    ....
    
  E.W.Wallace
......
My response is below.   
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Paul Drake 
To: [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 4:34 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] News about the Changed Website for NARA [National Archives]


Thanks for the suggestion, E. W, and I too read and enjoy that newsletter.  

I think it must also be noted that, while such as Ancestry.com give the appearance of having MUCH on their pay-for records website (and they really do have a lot of material posted there), it always MUST be remembered that somewhere between 95% and 97% (thanks Janet) of all the sources available for our research and study have NOT yet been abstracted, copied, published or sent beyond the local courthouses and hometown genealogy/history societies.  Those zillions of records at your family "wheres" simply will not yet be found anywhere on the internet. 

So, even if you could somehow look at everything on the internet, you would have not much more than scratched the surface of the myriad records that are out there just for the taking. 

I teach all my students that they surely should use the Internet and its materials, but by doing that they will not learn anywhere near all that is free to them.  I also suggest that, upon commencing a search for a new line, they should first go to the websites of the counties (or towns) WHERE that ancestor or family lived. After reaching that place and learning what all is there available, then go surf the net to their heart's content for whatever else there may be.  So, try that, but while you do please don't tell any of us that you have "looked just everywhere" and are at a brick wall, because you have not.  Until you EXHAUST the sources of those counties and towns you are not even close to being done.

Finally, remember that - just like you - your ancestors left the vast majority of the records of their lives in the counties where they were born, lived, got married, had kids, worked, went to school and died.  Just a few of the more obvious exceptions to that general rule are the census records, Soc. Sec. data, any records of their military service or pensions, records of land gained from Colony, State or Federal governments, employment by government or under the Railroad Retirement Act, records of their service or employment in maritime or marine service, tax records and a bunch of criminal records.

Good luck.

Paul        
  



To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html