Hello, I can provide a few facts from outside the US. In the late 1970s, when I began doing research in public archives (mostly local, in Burgundy), archive curators were facing a growing demand from amateur genealogists. These were generally retired people who had lived through the social and professional change of the 20th century and were in quest of their "roots", as well as using genealogy as an entry into historical knowledge. This large population added its weight to the smaller communities who had always been interested in genealogy, such as aristocrats or huguenots. The Internet (and even before, the Minitel system in France) arrived in due time to meet this demand by offering new research and communication tools to these genealogists, as well as a welcome relief to archive curators. Hope this helps. Best Pierre Mounier-Kuhn Le 3 mai 10 à 22:42, Janet Abbate a écrit :
If anyone knows about this and cares to respond, please reply directly to josh.tapper@gmail.com. Thanks, Janet
Begin forwarded message:
From: Josh Tapper <josh.tapper@gmail.com> Date: April 30, 2010 2:48:42 PM EDT To: abbate@computer.org Subject: question, re: Internet history and online genealogy
Dear Prof. Abbate,
My name is Josh Tapper;; I'm a freelance journalist and student at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York. For the past few months I've been reporting a story on the rise of mainstream, or popular, genealogy and what that means for the field at large. Ancestry.com, an online genealogy search engine and data compiler, is the world's most prominent source for genealogical research. Essentially, it controls how people do genealogy.
Generally speaking, genealogy has been on the web for years. I've often heard that it's one of the most search topics. I've also heard that genealogy (and porn) was behind most Internet activity.
I was hoping you might be able to comment on the historical relationship between genealogy and the Internet. If not, would you be able to recommend someone who might?
Thank you very much,
-Josh Tapper M.S. Magazine '10 Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Dr. Janet Abbate Dept. of Science & Technology in Society Virginia Tech
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