Board Member Pete Smith writes: "I would like to react to the featured web site http://www.ancestry.com/ I have used the web extensively for genealogical research. I have found that the commercial sites usually give access to free sites that are just as available without going through the commercial site.

My favorite site for genealogical research is http://www.gendex.com/ It is a free site that provides an index for more than 10 million names. (although many are duplicates) It provides links to private web pages that include family history in different formats. Once I land on a site that has a name that I want, I usually find that the site has much more on that family that is also of interest.

A word of warning on the use of the web for genealogical research as well as other research. There is a lot of garbage out there. Some people are not careful about what they put on their web pages and include family links that are not correct. Others make mistakes in transcribing information from other sources. A researcher has to learn what looks trustworthy and what looks suspicious. If the information is important, it should be confirmed through a reliable source."