Diversity

Discovering Cultural Diversity

on the Internet

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Sooner or later, most genealogists trace their family trees beyond

the boundaries of their research experience. Learning to do research

in a new geographic area and/or culture means that some things stay the same (fundamental principles of research) and some things will be different.

Challenges faced include:

	The legal and cultural systems that created records (history).
	The geopolitical shifts in boundaries and jurisdictions.
	The types of records created.
	The typical time period for each type of record created.
	The availability of records for that time period and location.
	The languages and dialects of the record keepers.
	The script/handwriting used by the record keepers.
	The cryptic symbols often used in many types of records.
	The tools/finding aids specific to that locality, record type, and time period.

Audio tapes of lectures given at regional and national genealogical conferences in years past are available at the AudioTapes.com Web site (www.audiotapes.com). These are searchable by author, title, or conference name.

The FamilySearch Internet Web site has five areas of significant help for genealogists learning to do research in a new geographic area and/or culture.

	Research Helps (www.familysearch.org > SEARCH > Research Helps)
	Research Guidance (www.familysearch.org > SEARCH > Research Guidance)
	Web Sites directory (www.familysearch.org > SEARCH > Web Sites)
	Family History Library Catalog (online version) (www.familysearch.org > LIBRARY > Family History Library Catalog)
	Glossary (www.familysearch.org > Glossary)

Despite the vastness of the help available at the FamilySearch Internet Web site, no one site on the Internet has “everything.” Examples:

GENUKI vs. British Isles GenWeb Project

	GENUKI (http://www.genuki.org.uk/)
	British Isles GenWeb Project (http://www.britishislesgenweb.org/)

GenWeb Projects vs. WebRings

	WorldGenWeb Projects (http://www.worldgenweb.org/)
	WebRing (http://www.webring.org/rw)

Cyndi’s List vs. Web Sites directory at FamilySearch Internet

	Cyndi’s List (http://www.cyndislist.com/)
	Web Sites directory at FSI (www.familysearch.org > SEARCH> Web Sites)

Specialty Sites:

	FEEFHS (http://www.feefhs.org/)
	GENUKI (http://www.genuki.org.uk/)
	HMC’s ARCHON (http://www.hmc.gov.uk/archon/archon.htm)
	Indigenous Peoples of the World (anthropology) Web Sites (http://www.nativeweb.org/)
	ChineseRoots.com (http://www.chineseroots.com/)
	PolishRoots (http://www.polishroots.org/)
	Jewish Genealogy (http://www.jewishgen.org/)

Some of the best resources are found in unlikely or less likely locations.

	Baltimore County [MD] Genealogical Society’s ethnic links (http://www.serve.com/bcgs/links.html)
	Mr. Tom Wodzinski (in Canberra, Australia) has Polish genealogy links (http://www.polishroots.com/genpoland/geninfo1.htm)
	Rafael T. Prinke’s Web site (http://main.amu.edu.pl/~rafalp/) in Poland

Many of these less likely online resources can be found via search engines.

Internet Search Engines

	Google.com is very popular, but don’t stop there.
	About.com is another useful type of search engine.
	Many general Internet search engines have special country and/or language specific versions.

There are also geographic/language specific search engines.

EuroSeek (bought out by WorldLight.com AB and should be back online by the first quarter of 2002)

SearchEngines.com (http://www.searchengines.com/searchengine_listings.html) has lists of search engines by:

	General Search Engines
	World Search Engines
	Topical Search Engines
	Reference Sites

Remember to search outside the lines.

Search for travel resources.

Search for departments of culture.

Search for the equivalent of a Chamber of Commerce.

Search for lists of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) about that country or ethnic group.

Search for local newspapers and foreign language newspapers.

	Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com/)
	NewsLibrary (http://www.newslibrary.com/nlsite/index.html)

Don’t overlook e-mail discussion groups you can join to lurk and learn.

Mail lists

	E-mail Collaboration Lists at FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org > SHARE > Collaboration E-mail Lists)
	RootsWeb (http://lists.rootsweb.com/)

Newsgroups

	Deja at Google (http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/deja_announcement.html)
	Newsgroups category at Cyndi’s List (http://www.cyndislist.com/)

Many online resources can be found via Web Portals. The Webopedia Web site (http://www.webopedia.com/) defines a Web Portal as: “A Web site or service that offers a broad array of resources and services such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and on-line shopping malls. The first Web portals were online services, such as AOL, that provided access to the Web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience.”

The Library of Congress has lists of links in its “Portals to the World” (http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html)

BUBL Information Service (http://bubl.ac.uk/) has several lists that are genealogically useful including:

BUBL Link has a catalog of 12,000 Internet resources searchable by countries.

General reference

Humanities

	Archaeology
	History
	Philosophy
	Religion

Language, literature, and culture

Social sciences

BUBL Search

BUBL UK (directory of organizations and institutions in the UK)

BUBL Archive (Web content no longer posted at the current BUBL site)

BUBL Journals

BUBL Mail (Mail Lists and e-mail archives)

RefDesk (http://www.refdesk.com/index.html)

	Find: Countries Information> WorldSkip.com>Poland (http://www.worldskip.com/)
	RefDesk’s Historical Information Resources (http://www.refdesk.com/facthist.html)
	RefDesk’s Dictionaries and Language Resources (http://www.refdesk.com/factdict.html)

HORUS (http://horus.ucr.edu/horuslinks.html)

	Histories of Specific Countries, Times and Places
	Areas of History
	On-line Services About History
	Web Tools
	Alphabetical Listing of Link Collections
	Search the HORUS Database

Tutorials and resources posted at archive, library, university, and institutional Web sites are often overlooked.

	National Archives and Records Administration>Research Room>Reference at Your Desk>Genealogy (http://www.nara.gov/alic/rayd/genealog.html)
	A2A Database (http://www.a2a.pro.gov.uk/) “The English strand in the UK archives network” with a catalog of a variety of archives all over England
	Finland & Finnish-American Web Resources and Sites (http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~cook/usa.htm)
	The Amherst Center for Russian Culture (http://www.amherst.edu/~acrc/)
	NIDS information from ProQuest (http://www.proquest.co.uk/products/)
	Volksbund Deutsche (http://www.volksbund.de/)
	North Carolina ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) (http://www.ncecho.org/)

Language aids are plentiful online:

	FreeTranslation (http://www.freetranslation.com/)
	Babel Fish at AltaVista (http://world.altavista.com/)
	XLation.com (http://www.xlation.com/)
	RefDesk (http://www.refdesk.com/index.html)
	e-transcruptum (http://www.e-transcriptum.net/)