Tips for Yancey Family Research

Maybe you are just starting your research on the Yancey Family and don't know where to start. Maybe you are new to the Internet and are not familiar with the resources and tools. Maybe you just bought a computer and want to start using it to organize all your paper records. Maybe you've been doing research for a while - but want to get some new ideas on how to make further progress on your Yancey Research. Here are some specific tips, below, for those researching their Yancey heritage, whether they are just beginning or have been doing it for years. Your comments are greatly appreciated - Dennis J Yancey (DJY) - dyancey@miami.edu

Understand The Very Basics	Before you "dive in" to your family history research and attempt to solve the family mystery as to the origins of your branch of the Yancey Family - see that you have at least some foundation in genealogy/family research basics. Have an understanding of things like: Pedigree Charts, Family Group Record, Other Forms, Genealogy Software, The difference between Primary & Secondary Sources, How to Evaluate Genealogical Data, What you will need and be using in your research, Getting Started, Doing Genealogical Research on the WEB, Documentation & Citation, and a pet peeve of some: How to spell G-E-N-E-A-L-O-G-Y.
Get started "On the right foot"	Do your best to start your research out right from the start. It is highly recommended that you find a friend or relative that can act as a "mentor" or guide and work with you in pointing you in the right direction and helping you get started in your family research, showing you the ropes of the the tools that you will use. Put a good amount of thought into what your research focus will be and what tools (hardware, software, "paperware") you will use. Genealogical Research is, in essence, a multi-faceted process involving, research and information gathering, recording & transcription, storage, organization, retrieval/reporting of family data - and the amount of data you are maintaining can explode very rapidly. Whether you are using a computer or not - establish a way to organize yourself, your activities, your data (soft & hard copy), and information about your contacts. Keep a research log in such a way as to be able to know later on where certain information came from and who you're contacts were for such data. Documentation & citation are two items often glazed over by beginners that they often regret later.
The Use of a Computer	w It is HIGHLY recommended that a computer be used, for genealogical research of any significant nature. It will be used in helping you record, organize, and maintain a multitude of different information you will be acquiring - as well as allowing you to communicate, via email, with people around the world, and giving you access to the miracle of the Internet. If you are new to genealogy, computers, or the Internet consider taking an educational course - you may find that trying to learn all three at once can be a little frustrating and overwhelming at times - and you may want to focus on one area at a time. No-one is EVER too old to learn - and these are great activities to keep your mind active and nimble. w Software made specifically for genealogical purposes is also HIGHLY recommended. Using a Word Processor / Charting program for more than a hundred people or so on your family tree becomes extremely cumbersome and inefficient and you don't want to have to do data-entry all over again when you start using a genealogy package. Keep in mind, a simple family tree very quickly becomes a very complex "family vine". There are a lot of very good products out there - some of them even being FREE - but as with any software there is never ONE BEST genealogy program. w As far as a computer purchase - you may find that you can purchase a computer for relatively cheap if you get it with an Internet Contract - access to the Internet being HIGHLY recommended for even the hobby genealogist. If you already have a computer you may consider companies that offer free Internet access such as NETZERO or JUNO along with free email services. Once you start using email - you'll wonder how you ever did without it. Even if you don't have your own computer - most public libraries provide free access to the Internet - and often free educational classes. w The serious genealogist should at least consider such items as a scanner, a digital camera, a high quality/high speed printer, a multimedia sound card and headset microphone, high capacity removable backup storage. w One of the most important items, once you start depending on the computer for your genealogical data - is a simple, but thorough, and well understood Backup and Restore Procedure done on a regular basis. Contact a friend or family member who may be a little more computer "savvy" to help you set up a backup procedure you feel comfortable with and have tested. For the serious Genealogist consider off-loading your computer data off-site and possibly onto the Internet. You may be maintaining your files for years - but it only takes a second for a hard drive crash, or an erroneous file delete.
Begin your research with your own close family	Many people often start gathering information on some very distant immigrant ancestor even before they have even filled out a Family Group Record for themselves and their parents. Start your research with yourself (or your children) and then work backwards generation by generation - filling out a Pedigree Chart. Fill out a Family Group Record for each family as you work your way back - or enter the corresponding data into your genealogy software and print a resulting form. Keep in mind, in most cases, for your closer generations, your best source of genealogical information will be your OWN family (and not some on-line computer database). Contact parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins and other relatives telling them of your interest in the family history and your desire to better document it - asking them about any documents that they may have that can help you. Keep in mind, those of the family who are elderly, and may know more about the family history than others (and who may be around to pass this information on only for a short time) Contact relatives who may have collected such things as photos, histories, diaries, letters, albums etc. Consider doing recorded personal interviews with members of the family. Write to more distant members of the family you may have less contact with. Make sure that valuable family records & memorabilia are being kept safe and will be passed on to future generations. Help family members understand the importance of their needed efforts in collecting, preserving and documenting the family history. Make copies of important family material, in case primary documents are damaged or destroyed.
Making contact with others, Avoiding Duplication of Research, Checking major Yancey Databases.	w Avoid duplication of research. If there is someone in the family that has done extensive research over the years of your Yancey family - contact them and attempt to obtain copies (either in hard or soft computer format) of their genealogical information. Don't spend hours on end researching something that has already been researched and recorded by someone else. Keep in mind that the further you trace your Yancey line back - the greater the chance that you will be able to find people who also descend from that common ancestor and may have done research on the same families. You are probably familiar with first cousins, aunts, uncles etc. - but going on to 2nd & 3rd cousins and beyond the chances are you probably don't have close contact with most of them. The Internet is a great way for making contact with some of your more distant relatives. Research has shown, that with only a few very minor exceptions all Yanceys descend from a group of families living in Virginia in the early 1700's. w Check for the name of your earliest known Yancey ancestor in the Yancey Family Genealogical Database (YFGD). This is the largest and most complete database of Yancey Descendants all the way from the late 1600's when the family is to have come over from the Old World up to and including Yancey of the present day (including entries for nearly 30,000 Yancey descendants). Chances are that if you can trace your Yancey ancestry back at least past the 1900's you will be able to make a a connection with Yanceys in the YFGD and very possibly trace your line all the way back to the first Yanceys of Virginia. Most all Yancey recorded on every US Federal census from 1790 when the first U.S. census was taken to the 1880 census are included in the database. Of all the Yanceys that ever lived between 1700 and 1900, over 200 years in America, a very high percentage are recorded in the YFGD. Once you find an ancestor of yours in the YFGD you will be able to note other researchers who descend from this common line. Their are links to email addresses of over 600+ Yancey researchers. There are also links to over 200+ external websites containing more detailed information. Also recorded in the YFGD are census, deed, court, bible and other records as well as links to photographs and biographies. w Also Check the Yancey Family Researchers Database (YFRD) to be able to browse the list of other Yancey researchers by Name or by Ancestral Grouping. w There are many organizations and groups who can help you locate information in specific sources for FREE. (But use, don't abuse).
Genealogical Data Files and resources on the WEB	There are various places on the web where information about Yancey families may be posted. w Three main web sites dedicated specifically to the family include: The Yancey Family Surname Resource Center (YFSRC), Yancey Cousins United (YCU), Yancey Resources at ROOTSWEB. You can spend hours going from link to link reading and viewing the information that has been placed on the web - this can be both bad and good. Try to keep your focus and measure your time and concentrate on those items that appear to be the most use to you. w The three sites above are specifically for the Yancey family. Should you not find what you are looking for there - you may need to go beyond the bounds of these sites - some possibilities include various genealogy portals like: Cyndis List, USGENWEB, ROOTSWEB, FTM, and Ancestral Findings. Other sources include various online searchable databases referencing primary sources, as well as other composite databases (of secondary sources) comprised of genealogical data files submitted by people around the world and accessible via one common interface - like WORLDCONNECT, Ancestry World Tree, Family Search, GenCircles Global Tree, GENDEX & tons of other genealogical databases. w You can also search various Internet Search Engines. Just keep in mind, as you go from, for example, the YFGD to a search engine such as HOTBOT or GOOGOL - you will have to wade through more and more of hundreds or thousands of web sites that may have nothing to do with what you are trying to find. General Search Engines are, by no means, the best way to search for genealogical data on the WEB - however, if you don't find what you are looking for in other places they can sometimes retrieve information that you never would have found in some of the primary search tools. Using compound searches such as "YANCEY AND GENEALOGY" may be more useful than a single search term. You also might want to consider an automated Internet Search Agent. w One important thing to keep in mind when searching for information in just about any resource, on line or otherwise, is to check for multiple variations in spelling (example: YANCEY, YANCY, YANCIE).
Posting Queries on the WEB	If you do not at first find your Yancey ancestors name in the YFGD - you may want to post a Query - a message in the form of a request for information - in certain places on the Internet. w A very good place to post a query is to the YANCEY-L Mailing List. A mailing List is a way of easily either giving out, or requesting, information to/from a large number of persons interested in a common subject - such as Yancey genealogy - in a very easy format. You can also subscribe to the Yancey-L service (for free) and receive queries and/or messages posted by others. The whole idea behind mailing lists like Yancey-L is to connect people together with a common interest in such a way that the flow of information is free and easy - and its done via email so that every subscriber can view/send/retrieve information at his/her own pace and time. w You may also wish to post a query to an Internet Bulletin Board - such as GENFORUM, FamilyHistory.Com, or Ancesty.com. You can view and respond to queries posted by other researchers. You may also want to post your name on the Roots Surname List (RSL) under the surname Yancey - or other names.
Use LDS (Mormon) Data Files with Caution	w The International Genealogical Index as well as the Ancestral File - are two large databases compiled by the LDS Church (Mormons) which, for decades before the Internet, and even now - are some of the largest and most accessed genealogical data files around. They are composed of information submitted by thousands of people over many years (since the early 1900's). Because of their massive size (multi-millions of names) they can be a great place to search. However, much caution should be used in simply taking information from these files and including it in your genealogical database without looking into primary sources and other research which supports such data. For various reasons including: a) The fact that for decades submission to these files was done on paper, b) data from multiple submitters was merged together, c) no data validation was required, c) the update/correction of data in these files has never been clear cut or easy, d) the fact that literally tens of thousand of people have submitted data to the file (some good researchers - others pretty sloppy) -- because of these and other reasons these genealogical files are full of mis-leading information, duplication, inconsistencies and a lot of just down-right erroneous information. The IGI & Ancestral Files are a good source of clues as to where to look for information - but should not be used as Documentation for genealogical data. There is a large amount of erroneous data on the Yancey family in these files. I don't want to appear to be "slamming" the LDS - I am LDS myself. But I think my sentiments are quite in line with the norm. Some suggestions on using the LDS "Family Search" - which is their "front end interface" to all there data files include doing a "Custom Search" only on the files of interest. Also, I recommend searching the Pedigree Resource Files over the IGI & AF because they are recent creations and include submitter information possibly including an email or website. When using there Website Search - it is better to use the "Keyword" option. Much of what has been said about the cautions that should be used in accessing LDS files is true, to a lesser degree, of similar databases made available in recent years such as WORLDCONNECT & Ancestry World Tree, and caution should always be used in using information without knowing what documents support the data and who did the research. w The caution with the LDS IGI & AF files being said - there ARE an extremely large number of other files and resources made available through the LDS of good PRIMARY documents and/or references to them. The LDS church, with the largest Family History Library in the World, has traveled the world over, microfilming primary records of all types in many countries and you may be surprised that you can get local access to these microfilm at a local Family History Center near you. Many people are not aware of the Yancey Family Genealogical Collection that is available through these Local FHC's.
Realize that not everything is on the WEB	Although it is hard to imagine genealogical research without the aid of the computer and the Internet - there are still many very important resources that you will not be able to access with your computer - don't let this limit your success in gathering information. w Every Yancey researcher should be familiar with the nearest Local Family History Center, nearby public and private libraries - often having large genealogical departments, and resources of local genealogical clubs and organizations. You should also make contact with county courts, museums, cemeteries, historical societies, newspapers, religious and community organization local to the area where the persons you are researching lived. Many of these organizations may not have web sites, nor email and even if they do they will most assuredly have vast amounts of material which is not available on the WEB. Contact these organizations by email, phone, letter, or in person. Realize that many of these organizations exist county by county and as you record dates and places in your genealogical database - realize that knowing the COUNTY, a certain event occurred is, at times, even more important than knowing the city or town. Once you know the county, you may want to visit the USGENWEB site for that county and you will often be able to obtain information about local organizations & resources to use - and find out which ones are on-line and which ones not. As far as printed material - realize that over the last century - millions of genealogical books and reference material has been published - much of which is not available on the web in full text format. w Become familiar with what has been published over the years concerning the Yancey Family. Know what other sources have already been accessed by other researchers in collecting family info. Be familiar with the Inter-Library Loan program in your area - and how you can use it to obtain copies of material found in other libraries throughout the country or at the national level. Check the LDS Family History Library Catalog on line and visit your local FHC and request microfilm copies of material you may find useful. Be aware of the Yancey Family Genealogical Collection on microfilm. Published Local Histories may be referenced - but used with caution. w Not only should you be trying to contact these organizations which may not be on-line - but also individual people. You may have relatives and/or other contacts who have done extensive genealogical research in years past, who are not comfortable with the "jump" to computerization. Do not leave them out of your research - contact them either in person or via phone/mail - let them know of the importance of their records and your desire to preserve them. You may find various members of the older generation who have records and knowledge not to be found elsewhere - your accessing & preserving their records may be even more critical than accessing Internet resources - as when they pass on, their records may be lost, destroyed, or discarded forever. In certain cases it may be a good idea to contact Yancey Families who currently live in a town or city where your ancestor in question lived - they may be distant relatives. You can often get names, address & phone numbers via various "people-finder" sites. You may want to either call them directly or send a personalized form letter (always include a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope SASE for them to respond). At your local library you may wish to check out queries and messages posted in genealogical magazines like Genealogical Helper and others. There are still a lot of people not on line - but when you contact them always encourage them, in a friendly way, to take advantage of email, the Internet & computer software so that they can share their valuable research with others.
When you hit the "Brick Wall"	Realize, that everyone will eventually hit a "Brick Wall" in tracing their Yancey lineage back generation by generation. In a few cases it may be within only a few generations but with some good research most Yancey lines can be traced back at least to the mid 1800's if not all the way back to the first Yanceys of America in Virginia in the early 1700's. Depending where (what time period) you hit your "impasse" you may try some very different things in trying to break thru your "brick wall". w If you are trying to discover/document ancestral lines/relationships in the 20th century (1900's) you might want to look for such things as birth and death certificates and other vital records, newspaper obituaries, marriage licenses, and Social Security Records - most of which didn't exist in earlier centuries. If you know where your ancestor in question lived you may try seeing if there are currently people by that same name living in that same general area and try to contact them by phone or mail and ask them what they know about their particular family and see if they may be related, and if so, if they have any information they could share. One of the best resources is your own family - cousins/aunts/uncles (both distant and close), older members of the family etc. (don't leave anyone out) - contact them and see what information may be held within your own extended family. Another very good source for both the 1800's and 1900's is information gathered from tombstones in cemeteries and graveyards. w In researching your ancestors of the 19th century (1800's) you may not be able to rely on such things as birth and death certificates, as most states didn't start creating them until the 1900's. You will need to access other sources such as Census Schedules - the Federal census being taken every ten years since 1790 - the latest ones being available are the 1920's. Before 1850, only the head of household was listed. Most Yancey census records from 1790 to 1880 are readily available. Again, ascertaining WHERE (most importantly the COUNTY) your ancestor lived is very important - it is often at the county level that wills, deeds, marriage, divorce, and other court records can be found. You can often find the County Court Address on the USGENWEB page of the county in question. County Courts will charge a fee for Xeroxing etc. (most are pretty reasonable). But they rarely do genealogical research, per se, and may give you a list of researchers for hire (who DO often charge a hefty fee). So its good to know exactly what you are looking for, if possible before contacting a County Court. You may want to submit a query to one of the County, Rootsweb lists, letting people on the list know of your research interest and asking for tips and suggestions - you will often be surprised how willing people are to help you out and you may find someone that has much close access to the places like courthouses and libraries in the counties in question. Always be gracious and thank those who are willing to help you and share items with you - and offer to cover any expenses they may incur. There may be many people on the mailing list who are much more familiar with the local records - and so ask your question in an open-ended sort of way, yet with specific details. You may also want to look into what has already been published and researched concerning your branch of the family. The resources on microfilm of county/federal/other records at the local LDS family History Centers are extremely useful. Another source that many people miss are archival / manuscript collections found in local/state/federal libraries or museums. Also religous/church archives and records may contain helpful info - especially Episcopalian / Methodist / Baptist / LDS records for Yancey family data. w For research of the 1600 & 1700's much of the resources for the 1800's still applies - but keep in mind, the census records - so useful for 19th century research - only go back to 1790's and only have family data from 1850 on. You will need to rely much more on county records - some of which, however, may have been destroyed. It is very important that you understand county formation. In the early years counties were very large - and as the years went by they were divided into smaller counties as the population grew. You may note Yanceys being recorded on 3 or 4 counties when in actuality, they may have never moved - the county lines did. Military Records in the National Archives and other places may be of value. w The Yancey Family Genealogical Database - represents a pretty high percentage of the Yanceys living in America from the 1700's to about 1880 due to comprehensive census & other research and accumulation of records from researchers all the way back to the late 1800's up to the current time. If you have hit a brick wall on a particular Yancey line that has not been linked back into the main branches of the family - and do not find the connections in the YFGD - you may consider that there are particular and important issues unique to that branch of the family that may explain the lack of extant records. The point is that it may not be your lack of genealogical expertise, or access to records that is creating the "brick wall". If after a serious amount of research you are still unable to trace your Yancey lineage beyond the 1900's or 1800's and connect in to the main branches of the Yancey family - consider one of the following possibilities (and I emphasize possibilities): County records may have been destroyed; Family Feuds and other conflicts may have caused ancestors to not pass on family information to descendants; relationships which were not legal or not acceptable to the family (affairs, births out of wedlock, bi-racial relationships) were not talked about; certain ancestors may have "run away" or lost contact with or abandoned, their families (children or spouses) or they may have certain ancestors of yours who were raised by someone other than their biological parents; the ancestor in question may have been attempting to evade authorities for various reasons - especially legal issues; the family may have been illiterate - and thus didn't pass on much in the form of written family documents to future generations; Name changes/corruptions may have taken place, even in recent generations - spelling of the surname may have changed from one generation to the next - or even been inconsistently spelled by a particular ancestor on extant records; w Should you have any Yancey ancestors with any African American connection - check out this web site. w There are many organizations and groups who can help you locate information in specific sources you don't have access to for FREE. (But use, don't abuse). w Here is an example of one researchers attempt to "break through" his brick wall.
Sharing and Exchanging your research with others	w As you become exposed to the magic of the Internet and email. You may be amazed at the number of people that you contact. You will often want to exchange information with your new contacts. But the exact details of how to do this in specific cases may not always be clear and obvious to the Internet/Genealogy novice. w Email is a great tool – but make sure you are using it to your advantage and making use of all the features that you can benefit from. Sending/Receiving file attachments (using email software like Outlook, Eudora, Netscape) is one of those features you should be familiar with. Some examples: You may have a photo that you have scanned into your computer and saved on your hard drive of your great-grandfather – that you wish to send to a cousin you have recently made contact with. Or you may have a copy of your Grandfather’s personal diary that you have typed into your word processor and saved on your computer and want to pass a copy of this document on to a relative. Being able to send file attachments to fellow contacts allows you to avoid printing/xeroxing/postage and "snail mailing". It also allows you to copy and paste, segments or entire files of documents that you have created or stored on your computer without having to retype or recreate these files. Keep in mind, however, that there are many different file types – and just because YOU have the software to view/read/update a file doesn’t necessarily mean that the person you are sending the file has the same software and can read the files. Most people will be able to view/handle graphics files in JPG & BMP format. A good amount of people will have software that reads Word / WordPerfect / Excel Document Files. But the safest thing is just to ask the person what file format they prefer – and you will see that whatever software you are using usually has a "SAVE AS" option that allows saving in various formats. Occasionally you will have people that, due to the email software they are using, may have trouble receiving attachments. In such case, at least with textual documents you may find that just copying the text and pasting it directly into the email will work just fine. w Now, the problem is that most people do not have the majority of their genealogical data in Word Processing format (nor should they) – most people have a genealogy program – such as PAF 4.0. How do you send a Family Group Record or a Descendants Chart from your Genealogy program?? Or how do you send a copy of your entire data file – or a subset of it of it to a contact – and them be able to use it – especially if they are not even using the same genealogy program ? This exchange of genealogical data is accomplished thru a file format standard called GEDCOM. Just like various different word processors can all read or import a standard ASCII TXT file – most all genealogy programs have been created to be able to import a common data file format. The fact that this common interface format exists – allows people with different programs to be able to create a copy of their data (or portion of the data) in GEDCOM format and send it to another person and have that person import the data into their genealogy program with ease - thus bypassing hours and hours of having to rekey all the genealogical data (and avoiding any erroneous keying of the data in the process). The exact details of how to create a GEDCOM file will vary from software to software but should usually consist of the following steps a) selecting the individuals/families in your database whom you want to include in the GEDCOM file b) normal file creation protocol (entering file name and location) c) an automated data selection and output procedure to create the file. GEDCOM files are a great thing – but they should be used with care. Just realize the minute you send someone your entire GEDCOM file which may represents years of research – you no longer have the same control over the data you have collected. And the person that you gave it to may pass it on to someone else or submit it to a genealogical data repository (like Ancestry's World Tree, FTM's World Family Tree, and the LDS Pedigree Resource File ) . Here are some examples of things that COULD happen (not necessarily what WILL happen). Example: You send a copy of your 10,000 record database to a cousin, they pass it on to someone else – and you eventually find out that someone has submitted it to a data repository - it has been "burned on to a CD" and is part of a massive data store on CD that some company is SELLING (when you would have never even considered charging for your data). Some people really get bent out of shape over this – in my opinion the fact that they are charging money – really isn't the worst part – they are a business and need to make a profit to stay alive – and they ARE providing some service by just creating the massive data store. But what bothers me, much more than the fact they they are charging money – is the fact that you no longer have control of the information. A physical CD has been printed – so even if you update information or correct erroneous info – or remove information you didn’t want shared - in your LOCAL database on your PC – the CD is already out there in the public domain – and there is nothing you can do about it – you can't fix/edit/correct that CD once it has been created & sold. Should you avoid giving out GEDCOM’s altogether ?? – by no means – but just take a few cautionary actions. Don’t just give your GEDCOM file out indiscriminately to just anyone. Consider creating a GEDCOM file of only the portion of your database that they are interested in. Know how they are going to use the data you have shared with them. Ask them to cite you as a source in their records – so that people know where they obtained the information from and can contact you. Keep the person up to date as far as updates to your database – and corrections that may need to be made to the original data that was shared. Share with others any concerns that you may have of them, or someone they pass on the data to, including this shared data in some genealogical repository that will be burned on a CD or other computer media. w Also use much caution when receiving GEDCOM files from others. You should almost always take the following precautions: a) NEVER load the gedcom directly into your main data file. b) Open an empty data file and import the GEDCOM file into it - noting any errors or messages generated in the load process c) Analyze the data in this new file - get an idea of the quality of the data, how it compares with the data in your file. d) Spend a good amount of time decidinga and understanding how an upload of this file into your MAIN data file COULD potentialy cause - data duplication, data corruption thru the merge process, introduction of erroneous/conflicting/confusing data that may be in the source file, data inconsistency - parts of the data (such as notes, sources etc) may not conform to the format standard that you are using in your main file. e) always make a backup of your main data file before you do an import f) Once you DO upload the GEDCOM to your main file - trying to get rid of duplicate record, or trying to back out information from a specific load, after later information was entered - can be quite complex, if not impossible. For these and other reasons, in creating the Yancey Family Genealogical Database - not a single GEDCOM was directly imported into the database - even though the data represents info from 1000's of sources and contacts. To maintain the data integrity and homogenuity - every entry was manually entered into the main file - after an analysis of the source data. w The idea of making your data part of a central massive genealogical data store DOES have its advantages (people researching common lines will see your information and hopefully contact you) – it is the lack of control and inability to correct and update published versions of a repository that may turn some people off. WORLD CONNECT is one genealogical data repository that gets around this. They do not burn any of their data on CD’s, the submitter retains full and total control of the data – and the data is not merged together on an individual by individual basis with other data submissions from other people (thus very possibly corrupting the data in the process). One can also control whether other people will be able to download (or NOT) the data in GEDCOM format and be able to import the data into their genealogy program. I highly recommend Yancey researchers to submit their data to WORLD CONNECT. w Besides GEDCOM format – many genealogy programs allow creation of Charts/documents/reports in "word processor" format – often saving the output in the common RTF file format – which can be read by most Word Processors. This is another way that you can create output files from your genealogy program to share with other contacts. w Another way to share your Yancey research – is to consider setting up a personal WEB site where you can post your information for others to see. This is not nearly as hard nor costly as some people may think. There are various companies that provide totally FREE web sites – and there is a lot of software out there. I happen to use Microsoft Front Page – which is just about as easy as any Word Processor. And for basic web pages – that’s for the most part what Front Page (and others) are - just Glorified Word processors to create hyper-text documents on the WEB. If you do have intentions of creating a web site - I highly recommend that you get a friend or family member who is familiar with some of the technical details and has had some experience – but once you get over a few minor obstacles – you will find that creating web pages – and uploading your data to the web site is actually pretty easy. And you don’t need to create a super fancy site – concentrate on the genealogy part – not how to create a "killer looking" web site with all sorts of animations & sound & 3D graphics – if that is not your forte. You will also find that various Genealogy Programs allow for almost fully automated creation of HTML pages of your genealogical data - such as PAF 4.0. Here are some examples of web sites created by fellow Yancey researchers: Robert Juch's site created, in part, using PAF 4.0. Betty Brubach's site provided thru FTM. Lester Wilsey's site provided thru GEOCITIES. Elton Lacey's site provided thru ROOTSWEB.