The internet has revolutionised genealogy research, making it much easier, faster, cheaper and more convenient for people to build their family trees and track down certain ancestors than ever before.
The days when dedicated family historians needed to travel to remote areas and spend hours or even days poring over old census records with a magnifying glass are long gone, as more records become digitised, stored and searchable on family history websites.
Most of these websites require you to register and in some cases pay, but they may offer a wealth of tools and resources for aspiring family tree researchers.
Even if the people you're searching for lived and died before the internet existed, the presence of scanned records that can be searched by keywords - such as names, addresses or dates - streamlines genealogy research and makes completing your family tree a realistic and practical option for people of all backgrounds, even those who do not have too much time to dedicate to the hobby.
Using specialised ancestry websites may be the best way to track down people in the pre-internet past, but if you're trying to find people who may still be alive and living in different areas - even different parts of the world - you should also learn how to use web searches and social networks effectively to pursue this goal.
With more than half a billion members, social network Facebook can be a useful starting point if you know enough details about someone to narrow down the search by name and location.
Google and other search engines could also be helpful for finding websites that mention the people you're looking for, or even blogs and photo albums owned by your relative.
One important thing to remember if your ancestry searches do involve people who are still alive is to respect their privacy, and appreciate that they may not be as enthusiastic about getting in touch as you are.
There may be a number of reasons for this, from a desire to let go of the past to a simple lack of time, and this privacy should be respected.
[b1] Dealing with these challenges and avoiding frustration is a key part of the genealogy pastime.
Thus, though you may run into a few minor roadblocks on your journey to discover your family history, modern technology has made this process easier than ever before.
As any historian can tell you, researching the past can be a challenge, but it's the breakthroughs that make this endeavour so rewarding.
The days when dedicated family historians needed to travel to remote areas and spend hours or even days poring over old census records with a magnifying glass are long gone, as more records become digitised, stored and searchable on family history websites.
Most of these websites require you to register and in some cases pay, but they may offer a wealth of tools and resources for aspiring family tree researchers.
Even if the people you're searching for lived and died before the internet existed, the presence of scanned records that can be searched by keywords - such as names, addresses or dates - streamlines genealogy research and makes completing your family tree a realistic and practical option for people of all backgrounds, even those who do not have too much time to dedicate to the hobby.
Using specialised ancestry websites may be the best way to track down people in the pre-internet past, but if you're trying to find people who may still be alive and living in different areas - even different parts of the world - you should also learn how to use web searches and social networks effectively to pursue this goal.
With more than half a billion members, social network Facebook can be a useful starting point if you know enough details about someone to narrow down the search by name and location.
Google and other search engines could also be helpful for finding websites that mention the people you're looking for, or even blogs and photo albums owned by your relative.
One important thing to remember if your ancestry searches do involve people who are still alive is to respect their privacy, and appreciate that they may not be as enthusiastic about getting in touch as you are.
There may be a number of reasons for this, from a desire to let go of the past to a simple lack of time, and this privacy should be respected.
[b1] Dealing with these challenges and avoiding frustration is a key part of the genealogy pastime.
Thus, though you may run into a few minor roadblocks on your journey to discover your family history, modern technology has made this process easier than ever before.
As any historian can tell you, researching the past can be a challenge, but it's the breakthroughs that make this endeavour so rewarding.