Tracing your ancestry is hardly a new hobby, but it's boomed since the net made it easier. When North American "seniors" - the keenest of all amateur genealogists - started getting on line in their thousands in the mid-90s, they realised they could do some of the heavy leg-work associated with ancestor-seeking while sitting in their slippers in front of the PC.
Why on earth schlepp round the States, or Europe, in great-grandmother's footsteps, when you could get a headstart with the information that you had hunted down on the net?
Now, according to professional genealogist Tim Cooper of British Ancestral Research www.brit-a-r.demon.co.uk we're catching up fast here . "More and more of our clients come from the UK," he says. "The majority are still North American, but the gap's closing as an increasing number of Britons discover the internet and what it can do for genealogy."
The amount of information on the web is increasing month by month. The Mormons have put their International Genealogical Index on the web at www.familysearch.org, with ever-improving search facilities. For British searchers, it's most useful for getting hold of information on births, marriages and deaths held in parish registers before 1837 (the year national civil records began).
The other major source of online information is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at www.cwgc.org which records the deaths of 1.7m soldiers from the Commonwealth in both world wars. This is helpful for searchers filling in details of times and places - so many families' oral history amounts to no more than "Great-uncle Billy died in the war".
Census returns will come online over time. The 1881 census is on CD-Rom, and the 1901 census is scheduled for release onto the web in 2002 - whether you'll have to pay somehow is not yet known.
But the web can tell you vital things like where your public records offices are, their opening hours, and what information is stored there (for the national Public Records Office, go to www.pro.gov.uk). There are hundreds of genealogy websites full of information on international searching: www.rootsweb.com is an excellent starting point, and while it's mainly North American, it has lots for the UK searcher.
More than anything, the internet has taken away the loneliness of the long-distance digger. Hundreds, probably thousands of newsgroups and emailing lists, plus forums and bulletin boards, put searchers in touch with each other.
Some groups are very earnest; some are light-hearted; some are specific to one area, or one or two surnames; some are much more general. Try agenealogychat ( agenealogychat-subscribe@onelist.com ) for a mainly North American/UK general list, or alt.genealogy for a newsgroup. Searchers new to the subject, as well as the internet, can get friendly advice from Gen-Newbie (send a subscribe message to gen-newbie-l-request@ rootsweb.com . For a pretty comprehensive account of groups availableand a ton of resources and other info, go to www.cyndislist.com
Most groups appear founded on the principle of mutual help. Genealogy has to be the least competitive of sports. Information is happily shared. If you're researching a line of Petherington-Willoughbys in early 19th century Wiltshire, there'll be a mailing list where you can merrily pick someone else's brains who's happy to fill in some of the twigs and leaves on your tree.
The genealogist's stumbling block is known as "the brick wall" when you can find no documentation whatsoever of a person you're certain existed. Fellow searchers can give you tips about just where to go next and the great thing about the net is that it makes it possible to go anywhere, or to at least suss out the likelihood of success, before you book the plane tickets.
Huge numbers of family historians now have their own websites, to showcase their stories and document their lineage. Choose from several popular software packages to keep your findings under control (many are compared at www.globalgenealogy.com); ask what's right for you at one of the forums at GenForum. Search "family tree" on any search engine for dozens of examples, or visit Scotsman Walter Hampson's website at www.craigshill.demon.co.uk which takes a look at the slightly different path you need to take if you're seeking Scottish records.
