Holding A Mirror To The Internet
Cyndi's List - The First Five Years

The public debut of Cyndi's List actually isn't the beginning of the story. For our local genealogical society's first meeting every Fall, we have "show and tell". Members share their research successes and other genealogical experiences from the past summer. At this meeting in September of 1995, many had vacationed to visit cemeteries or old family homesteads. Some had researched in the major genealogical centers such as Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C. Cyndi got up to share that she had gone on the Internet and found genealogical related web sites. She had ten photocopies of a single page of bookmarks to share with any one interested. She was literally mobbed in the commotion to get at those photocopies. After the meeting, the editor of the society's quarterly publication asked Cyndi if she could expand the list of bookmarks to four or five pages for publication. Cyndi agreed and even offered to categorize the links. An innocent enough offer - she has been categorizing links ever since.

Based on the response of our local genealogical society, there was clearly a need for a better sort of directory or yellow pages to genealogy sites on the Internet. When Cyndi put our personal genealogy research pages on the Internet, she included her categorized list of links as a way to help others find their way on the Internet. Cyndi envisioned her Cyndi's List as a library card catalog to the genealogy section of the Internet. Providing a useful tool like a link list also helped attract visitors to our personal research pages - to make the connections between researchers so important in genealogy.

The Juggernaut - 1996 & 1997

For two years, Cyndi's List grew at a steady pace. As new web sites came online for genealogy, there would frequently be enough on a particular subject to form the critical mass of a new category. Thus specialty areas of research such as Germans From Russia ( http://www.CyndisList.com/germruss.htm ) and Loyalists ( http://www.CyndisList.com/loyalist.htm ) were made categories on Cyndi's List. Cyndi only created specific categories when enough links for that topic were found to make such a category useful to researchers.

Mostly, the new web sites were found by Cyndi herself. Occasionally, the creators of new web sites would ask Cyndi for a link to their web site but the majority of new sites came from Cyndi hunting them down on her own. These links were lots of personal home pages - the clever ones included general interest content to attract visitors. There were also the original co-operative Internet projects such as RootsWeb, USGenWeb, and GENUKI in the UK. At that time, only a small number of pioneering libraries were putting information of interest to genealogists on the Internet. A few genealogical societies were getting pages up to promote their membership and events. Only the largest governmental record repositories had web pages and those were informational only. Finally, a handful of commercial ventures were vying for a piece of the genealogical pie. The World Wide Web was predominately comprised of sites in the United States.

Cyndi's List at One Year Old

Work on Cyndi's List has never been simply a process of adding new links. The transient nature of the Internet causes web sites to move or be discontinued entirely. Cyndi's philosophy that "a link list isn't useful if the links don't work" drives a large effort to maintain existing links by correcting and, if necessary, removing broken links. Cyndi began using automated processes to discover broken links on Cyndi's List and has kept this effort a priority over the years.

Besides working on her List, other aspects of Cyndi's life did not slow down in this period. She wrote her first book which has now sold over 350,000 copies. Our son Evan arrived in 1997 to add to our fun. Cyndi also volunteered as an officer of our local genealogical society.

Get Cyndi - 1998

Cyndi was not at all comfortable with the perceived changes that commercialization of her web site would bring. In considering the commercial offers, she insisted that her web site always remain a free resource open to all. No subscriptions or user accounts required. The quality that Cyndi had put into her work to that point required that she retain complete control over the web site. In a bid to improve the web site, she required that any deal include professional art work for the site and software support to automate certain tasks. Basically, the deal had to benefit the visitors to Cyndi's List or it wasn't of interest to Cyndi.

Finding the right match for commercial sponsorship was not easy. Once a deal was struck with Sierra ( http://www.sierra.com/ ), the spurned suitors turned to their second choices for link lists to add to their own commercial web sites.

At the invitation of Dr. Brian Leverich, Cyndi moved her web site from our personal Internet Service Provider to RootsWeb ( http://www.RootsWeb.com ) where Cyndi's List continues to be hosted. The move to RootsWeb allowed Cyndi unlimited space to expand Cyndi's List. Formerly, hosting her web site on her personal account, Cyndi had to keep Cyndi's List within size limitations and could not utilize scripts for automation. In addition, Cyndi obtained her own domain name for Cyndi's List in conjunction with the move to RootsWeb.

Commercial sponsorship from Sierra brought more than just a new look to Cyndi's List. Visitors who wished to contribute links to Cyndi's List soon had an automated form to send in link suggestions ( http://www.CyndisList.com/newlink.htm ). This process was extended to submissions of changed and broken links as well. Now visitors could help in the process of keeping Cyndi's List current. Newly submitted links are added to the What's New pages ( http://www.CyndisList.com/whatsnew.htm ) the very next day. This provided the instant gratification that Internet users had come to expect from the web. In addition, the Cyndi's List Mailing List ( http://www.CyndisList.com/maillist.htm ) sends out an e-mail message to subscribers noting the prior day's submissions.

Of course, submissions are only part of the new links added every day to Cyndi's List. New links of genealogical interest added directly by Cyndi were now noted by a graphic next to each new link while links that have been updated were indicated with an graphic. This showed visitors what had changed in the past 30 days on Cyndi's List. A daily summary by category of all additions, changes, and deletions - called the Link Activity Report - is also sent out on the Cyndi's List Mailing List. Between the daily Link Activity Report and the and graphics, visitors can quickly locate additions and changes. Interested in finding new Pennsylvania links on Cyndi's List? Monitor the Link Activity Report for new links added to the Pennsylvania category ( http://www.CyndisList.com/pa.htm ). Then visit the Pennsylvania web page looking for the graphic.

Sponsorship allowed Cyndi to take on part-time assistants who have greatly increased the rate of link updating and reduced the backlog of link submissions. "Cyndi's Elves", as they are informally known here at home, follow Cyndi's standard procedures using the tool set which Cyndi developed to create, format, update, delete and check links on Cyndi's List. Quality control is carefully monitored by Cyndi herself.

Cyndi kept up with her other interests as well during this period. She placed her Cyndi's Genealogy Home Page Construction Kit ( http://www.CyndisList.com/construc.htm ) online as a free resource for the many family historians creating their personal web pages for the first time. The Construction Kit actually reads like a "how to" book on the whole spectrum of questions and issues surrounding genealogy home pages, their creation, hosting, promotion, and genealogy-specific concerns such as privacy.

My wife, whom I remembered as being rather shy in public speaking situations, soon became a much-sought-after speaker for genealogy and library conferences. Her excitement for using the Internet as one of many tools in genealogical research infected her audiences with confidence and enthusiasm. She wasn't selling snake oil, simply reassuring people that the Internet did have useful information which they could find and use effectively to further their research. In 1998, her dance card of speaking engagements soon filled up past the year 2001. Cyndi was thus able to travel and meet the people who actually used her web site. This real face-to-face contact became very important to Cyndi in energizing her work on Cyndi's List. Working 12 or more hours per day for tens of thousands of anonymous visitors doesn't really provide that human interaction which makes such a Herculean task seem worthwhile. By listening to the questions and comments of her audiences, Cyndi has been not only able to keep up her grueling pace but has also used audience feedback to make Cyndi's List a better research tool.

The Internet's genealogical-related subject matter began to mature in 1998. Many more commercial web sites came online. The major commercial web sites began the slow process of providing family history indexes and databases from a wide variety of previously existing sources. Large volumes of Internet-based pay-for-use indexes became available for the first time. In addition, vendors of genealogical products other than software or databases began to add themselves to the Internet in earnest. Online book stores specializing in genealogical titles became common.

The big volunteer projects made rapid strides as more volunteers "discovered" the Internet. These organizations became more efficient at organizing volunteers. In some cases, the volunteer efforts standardized the way in which they presented information. Not-for-profit incorporation complete with official leadership evidenced evolution on the part of these previously loose confederations of volunteers.

Genealogy content on the Internet became more international as more web sites for research outside of the United States proliferated. Canadian resources of all types became widely available. While English-speaking web sites from the U.S., the U.K., and former British Commonwealth nations continued to be disproportionately represented on the Internet, French, Scandinavian, Italian, German, and Hispanic genealogy web sites established a growing presence on the web. Web-based translation tools developed to handle the increased cacophony of differing languages. The Internet evolved from an Anglo-Saxon artifact of the Cold War to reflect a more international character.

1999 - Media Madness

The arrival of FamilySearch.org was widely heralded in the national and international media. That demand for the site required the expedient of rationing visitor time testified to the popularity of genealogy on the Internet. As part of the general media interest in Internet genealogy, the media "discovered" Cyndi's List. While Cyndi's List had been featured in a Newsweek article in 1997 about the growing popularity of genealogy in general and on the Internet in particular, 1999 saw an explosion of mass media attention to genealogy. In a short span of time, Cyndi's picture appeared in Time magazine along with an interview as part of their cover story on genealogy. The NBC Nightly News and ABC World News Tonight both aired interviews with Cyndi. Publications as diverse as Wired magazine and Cigar Aficionado dedicated stories to genealogy and highlighted the Internet as a tool. Cyndi's name became synonymous with genealogy on the Internet - she provided a friendly human face for people intimidated by the new technology. It was about at this time that our surname slowly faded away in favor of simply "Cyndi".

THE Cyndi

Cyndi's work on her web site didn't stop just because the media came calling. Cyndi added new categories for record types such as:

• City Directories ( http://www.CyndisList.com/citydir.htm )
• Schools ( http://www.CyndisList.com/schools.htm )
• Taxes ( http://www.CyndisList.com/taxes.htm )
• UK Military ( http://www.CyndisList.com/miluk.htm )
• Wills & Probate ( http://www.CyndisList.com/wills.htm )

In addition, Cyndi produced a book version of her web site. At first, Cyndi had resisted the repeated requests for a printed version of her web site. Why use a book when the web site itself was free and, more importantly, was updated regularly? A book would lose its currency as that Internet changed over time. It was, however, requests from people with limited Internet time available to them and those who had to pay by the minute for connectivity who convinced Cyndi that there was value in a book version of her web site. Users under those circumstances could plan their Internet time using the book form of Cyndi's List before actually using scarce or expensive Internet minutes. One reviewer was kind enough to suggest that since the book was portable, it be taken into rooms without Internet connectivity - such as the bathroom!

Cyndi's List - The Book

On the Internet, personal home pages with family history information exploded. Peer pressure and simplified tools made putting up an electronic billboard for your genealogical research a popular adjunct to genealogy. Professional researchers of all stripes rushed advertise their services on the web. Most genealogical societies around the world at both the national and local levels had by now placed information about their societies on the Internet.

2000 - An Institution

• The Baltic States ( http://www.CyndisList.com/baltic.htm )
• Catholic ( http://www.CyndisList.com/catholic.htm )
• Greece ( http://www.CyndisList.com/greece.htm )
• House & Building Histories ( http://www.CyndisList.com/houses.htm )
• Organizing Your Research ( http://www.CyndisList.com/organize.htm )
• Poorhouses & Poverty ( http://www.CyndisList.com/poor.htm )

Cyndi had always been reluctant to provide search engines on her site because visitors regularly wrote that they obtained new ideas on record types to investigate, learned about the history of their ancestors' homeland, and otherwise expanded their research horizons as a result of directly browsing Cyndi's List. The instant gratification of search engines, while a common experience on the Internet, does not lend itself to learning much about genealogy. But not wishing to exclude people who were in a hurry to find specific information, Cyndi relented in 2000 by adding two different search engines to her web site ( http://www.CyndisList.com/searchit.htm ).

Cyndi's volunteer efforts continued with her election to the National Genealogical Society's Board of Directors in 2000. The media continued to make note of Cyndi and she was featured in People magazine and appeared in ten episodes of the PBS Ancestors II television series. The New York Times hailed her as the "Betty Crocker for roots tracers". Cyndi's family life remained a priority for her as our son leapt into the pre-school years. Her father's stroke required her to curtail her speaking engagements and writing obligations while taking him to therapy three times a week.

The Internet did not stagnate in the year 2000 either. Of particular interest to genealogists using the Internet was MyFamily.com's purchase of RootsWeb. Most local libraries which held significant genealogy materials now had a corresponding genealogy section on their web sites. Various public and private initiatives in Scandinavia made some outstanding online databases available. FamilySearch added even more resources. Services offering DNA testing for genealogical purposes began to make their presence known on the Internet.

Cyndi's List Today

What Will 2001 Bring?

• Internet Genealogy ( http://www.CyndisList.com/internet-gen.htm )
• Orphans ( http://www.CyndisList.com/orphans.htm )
• Preservation & Conservation ( http://www.CyndisList.com/preservation.htm )

People often ask Cyndi how she does all this? Between the long hours working on the List and her travel schedule, what keeps her going? The answer is not surprising to anyone who knows her.

Cyndi does not measure the "success" of Cyndi's List by its number of links or the number of visitors or the attention of the media. What keeps Cyndi working on Cyndi's List are the hundreds of e-mails she receives from the users of her List which describe the new cousins they've found, their progress back an additional generation, or the useful research techniques they learned all via Cyndi's List. The occasional "thank you" or shared research triumph, whether by e-mail or face-to-face, goes a long way to keeping Cyndi at her keyboard. Visitors to Cyndi's List who share kind words about her site, recommend it to fellow researchers, and link to it from their own web sites are what keep Cyndi going. Her loss of our surname has been a small price to pay for the thousands of other new surnames she's help genealogists from around the globe find in their own family research.