The Lake County Public Library homepage offers links with a number of genealogy websites. Go to the library's website: www.lakeco.lib.in.us and on the homepage you will see a yellow box on the left with links. Go down to "Useful Web Sites" and click. You will see a list which includes "Genealogy". Click that and you will get a list of links to genealogy-related sites.
One of these sites is Rootsweb. This is an excellent free site, a sister to Ancestry.com. Be aware, however, that if you click on the links to Ancestry or do an Ancestry search from Rootsweb, you will not be able to view the results because Ancestry is a subscription site. You can access all of Ancestry in any of our libraries in the Lake County Public Library system, but only by directly clicking on the link from our database list.
Back to Rootsweb...
For several years, I have been receiving the Rootsweb free genealogy newsletter through my email. If you scroll down to the bottom of the Rootsweb homepage, you will see the link to sign up for the newsletter. The Rootsweb Review is both enjoyable and educational. I have found other sites through this newsletter which led me to more information on my family. I have learned tips to help me in my research and sometimes I just enjoy reading about someone else's breakthrough in their own family research.
Other services offered through Rootsweb are their message boards and message lists. You can check the message boards under your family surnames or a location. I got in touch with a distant cousin this way. I also signed up for several message boards--a couple for family surnames which I am always looking for, and a couple on Norway and Norwegians in Chicago. Through this last board, I asked about my great-great-grandparents in Norway and a kind person there got in touch and told me about a brother of my g-g-grandfather who was a well-known artist in Norway!
You will find Rootsweb to be a wonderful (and free!) site to both start and extend your genealogical research and a great place to reach out to the genealogical community.
