I would like to make this an interactive project with the readers. Email me with suggestions or make comments to the article on this site.

I am working on providing a free email account through this site in the near future. It will be linked to IAAGEN.COM, one of the International Association of Amateur Genealogists’ domain names. It will have the format: (your name@IAAGEN.com). Most details to be announced soon. Each personalized account will have several gigabytes of space available to you and will have numerous other services and benefits also.

Come back to see us soon.

“As a retired professional educator and an amateur family historian and genealogist, I am intrigued more by the “why” of doing genealogical research than I am by the “how”. Over the last decade, and probably starting much earlier with Haley’s Roots series on television, the average person has increasingly became interested in his or her “roots”. I, like many of them am still an amateur, but an ever learning amateur. Even as my knowledge and abilities in genealogy increase, I hope to remain an “amateur” in the true meaning of the word. “Amateur” means a person who “loves” what he or she is doing. I do not want to lose that “love” of genealogy.

Amateurs usually begin their initial interest in genealogy and family history for a specific reason. They may just be interested in a specific “colorful” ancestor they have heard of, or may think they descend from royalty. Whatever the reason, they have developed a “why” that leads them to want to know “how”. If we get too involved with the techniques and sources related to the “how”, we may forget our “why”and lose the “fun of the search”. This is something you never want to do.

I spend many hours doing research through the internet, occasionally a total day. My wife asks me; “Don’t you get bored doing the same thing all day long?” My reply is; “No, to me it is not the same thing. Every time I run across a new piece of the family puzzle, I am re-invigorated and the adrenaline starts flowing”. This excitement is a common “illness” among amateur genealogists.

To me, it is the “fun of the search”, the “why” that keeps me going. I have the background in research to enjoy the details, but could never get excited just by the details of documenting my ancestry. I am intrigued by each ancestral story that brings alive a little bit of my genetic and social inheritance. I believe that the majority of amateur genealogists share my excitement with each of their own discoveries.

This site is designed to provide support for the AMATEUR Genealogist, whom I believe to make up the majority of the those pursuing the hobby of genealogy and family history. It has been estimated that there are more than seventy five million (75,000,000) people throughout the world interested in this hobby. We hope to make this site “the site” for amateur genealogists and will attempt to provide support both for the “why” and the “how” to make your research journey a little more productive and enjoyable.