Tracing Your Family Roots through Genealogy Research Conducting a genealogy research is not so uncommon these days, when there seems to be a resurgence of interest in family history. It reached its peak in the 70s when the novel 'Roots' was published. It was written by Alex Haley, who was able to trace his African roots during the research period for the book. Roostweb could help you share your own research. Rootsweb basically enables you to submit any records that you have been able to transcribe in their database that is contributed by users. Believe it or not, only a minor fraction of information that is related to genealogy is found in the internet. Most data could be found in books, photographs, handwritten documents, microfiche, microfilm, churches, government archives, among others. Top Genealogical Sites: How These Could Make Your Work Easy! Genealogical work used to be equated to two words- tedious task. Not anymore. Nowadays, if one is interested in knowing his roots, then all he has to do is sit in front of a computer and type a few keys. There are several sites that offer free genealogy. At first, names were used to identify an individual through a unique characteristic: his family (usually his father), his place of residence, geographical location and even a personal trait like hair color or height. Other unique information about the individual was also used such as occupation and nicknames. Basically, help in accessing research and resource info is provided by the family history volunteer staff. However, take note that staff volunteers will basically be unable to do the actual research for you. What they could give you is a thorough orientation about the family history center, answer any or all of your questions with regards to research (the expertise of each family history center staff varies), assist you in your use of the family history center resources as well as help you in ordering microfiche and microfilms from the family history library. For other tools, these are downloadable: Timelines (personalized for your own use), dictionary for genealogy, Letter Generator (Italian Form), Relationship calculator and Converter from surname to soundex. Tools, databases, software and charts are not the only ones that are offered for free on the net.