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Genealogy's Net Gain: The Internet allows amateur historians to pull up. family information by the roots.
The Internet is a lot of fun, but promoters often promise more than the new medium can deliver. But if you're dabbling in finding your Jewish roots, or if you're a serious genealogist, the on-line world already offers a wealth of resources than can make your search much more fruitful.
The Internet can help with the two critical problems facing amateur researchers: locating repositories around the world with the historical records, and networking to find people who can fill in some of the blanks in your search.
If you're looking for information about your great-grandparents' extended family in Bialystok, what better way to tap the memories of Jews around the world with Bialystok roots than Internet "newsgroups" and the World Wide Web, which reach up to 20 million cybernauts across the planet?
The easiest starting point is JewishGen, the World Wide Web home page of JewishGen Inc., a non-profit organization that started in 1985 with genealogy forums on primitive computer bulletin board networks. Set your browser to http://www.jewishgen.org, and you're on your way.
For you novices, "browser" isn't the name of a dog; it's a...