Escape from Genealogy Purgatory

What to do with them? They want their entire family history handed to them on a silver platter. You want to help them learn to help themselves. What is the best approach?

There's always the old trick of getting them to focus on one single thing that they wish to discover about their genealogy. A clear and manageable research goal is the key to successful use of any library's resources. This gets the patron away from wanting to complete their entire family history in a day and manages their expectations more realistically. Instead of "their complete family history", work them through determining which single life event of one individual in their family history they would care to learn more about. It could be "When was great grandmother Firebrand born?" or "Where is great uncle Bolshie buried?" It depends on how much information about these people they already posses. You may be in for a "interesting" story or two as you help them decide which single event it should be. This technique effectively chops their desire for knowledge about their family into manageable pieces. Using the resources of your institution, they can work on finding uncle Bolshie's final resting place today, and then perhaps look for great grandma's birth date on their next visit.

This incremental approach helps reduce frustration on their part, allows you to focus them quickly, and opens up the possibilities of the patron having some success in their research while you're getting other work done. It's best to suggest that they begin with a more recent event that they're curious about - an event in the lives of their parents or grandparents which they have yet to learn about. Filling in the more recent pieces of the puzzle often provides clues to answer questions about earlier events.

The Electronic Version

How do you direct them when they ask this? The "focus on a single life event" strategy still works, but in this case, their fixation on the Internet may make them resistant to using your locally-available resources. Their "knowledgeable friend" insisted that all of their family information is just waiting for them in cyberspace. Placing them in front of an Internet-connected machine with no guidance is rather like letting them aimlessly wander through the stacks. They could type their surname into a search engine, but that amounts to shouting out their last name in the stacks hoping that the right book will fall on their heads. Heaven knows what "hits" they will get.

There's an easy way to guide your patrons to the genealogical content of the Internet. For over five years, Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet at http://www.CyndisList.com has functioned as the card catalog to the "genealogy section" of the Internet. Categorized and cross indexed, it lists over 90,000 genealogy links and serves up over 100,000 page views to visitors from around the globe every day. The organization of Cyndi's List mimics the way good genealogists approach their research - by locality and by record type. Looking for Mennonite libraries in Indiana? Extensive cross referencing allows a visitor to Cyndi's List to find such links under the Indiana ( http://www.CyndisList.com/in.htm ), Libraries ( http://www.CyndisList.com/libes.htm ), or Mennonites ( http://www.CyndisList.com/menno.htm ) categories. You needn't think like its creator to use Cyndi's List - cross referencing allows the same information to be found via multiple paths.

As an extension of the genealogy resources held by your library, Cyndi's List can be used to quickly zero-in on genealogical information on the Internet. Cyndi's List includes two search engines to find specific information directly rather than by category. Be sure to prepare your patrons before they launch into Cyndi's List. Focus them again on a single event in the life of one ancestor - one birth, one marriage, or one death. Don't let them get lost in the scope and extent of Cyndi's List. Its number of links to other genealogy web sites can sometimes be overwhelming - a true embarrassment of riches. Direct the patron toward Internet resources with a specific research goal in mind. This helps avoid the siren song of the Internet - the temptation of random surfing and wasted time.

Cyndi's List is also available in book form for offline browsing. Due to the dynamic nature of the Internet, the web-based Cyndi's List will always be the most up-to-date. Links are added and corrected on a daily basis. However, since most institutional Internet access is provided on a shared basis, the book version can help plan a trip into genealogical cyberspace in advance thus minimizing search time. An updated, two-volume print version of Cyndi's List will be published later this year.

While it may be tempting to place the genealogy-patron-from-Hell in front of an Internet device to provide electronic baby sitting services, the Internet is much more than a method of keeping those difficult genealogists quiet for a while. Easy access to major web-based resources such as the Social Security Death Index ( http://www.CyndisList.com/socsec.htm#SSDI ), the International Genealogical Index ( http://www.CyndisList.com/lds.htm#IGI ), transcribed or scanned source documents ( http://www.CyndisList.com/primary.htm ), the card catalogs of other institutions ( http://www.CyndisList.com/libes.htm ), and tens of thousands of personal home pages with genealogical information ( http://www.CyndisList.com/personal.htm ) makes the Internet a valuable addition to your library's genealogy collection. Cyndi's List makes the Internet accessible for your most incorrigible genealogy patrons.

Ten Tips for the Successful Use of Cyndi's List:

1. Start the patron with what they already know about their family and work them backwards in time towards the past.

2. Keep their focus on a single event in the life of one ancestor. Research should remain centered on finding this one bit of information.

3. Encourage the patron to view information on the Internet as a finding aid to the original records - not the as actual records themselves: Cyndi's List - Internet Genealogy "Researcher Beware: There Is No Such Thing! " ( http://www.CyndisList.com/internet-gen.htm ).

4. Use the Cyndi's List - Beginners page ( http://www.CyndisList.com/beginner.htm ) to introduce the patron to the basics of genealogical research.

5. Suggest that they seek further assistance and information from your local genealogical society: Cyndi's List - Societies & Groups - General ( http://www.CyndisList.com/soc-gen.htm ).

6. There are Internet-based genealogy resources specifically for young people: Cyndi's List - Kids & Teens ( http://www.CyndisList.com/kids.htm ); and for educators: Cyndi's List - Education ( http://www.CyndisList.com/educate.htm ).

7. Use the Cyndi's List - Search It! page ( http://www.CyndisList.com/searchit.htm ) to quickly hunt for patron surnames or specific topics. Use your browser's Edit, Find feature to find the search results within the identified page.

8. Use the Cyndi's List - Myths, Hoaxes & Scams page ( http://www.CyndisList.com/myths.htm ) to disabuse your patron of commonly held oral traditions such as "Our name was changed at Ellis Island." or "The courthouse burned down and ALL the records were destroyed."

9. If your library's genealogy web site is not yet included on Cyndi's List - Libraries, Archives & Museums ( http://www.CyndisList.com/libes.htm ), submit it at Submit a New Link to Cyndi's List ( http://www.CyndisList.com/newlink.htm ).

10. Keep smiling - it's all relative: Cyndi's List - Humor & Prose ( http://www.CyndisList.com/humor.htm ).