Some family history questions??

Question:

Some family history questions??

First off, I have been using ancestry.com and I am thinking about purchasing their family tree maker. What do you all think of the program??

Second, I once heard about a message board where you ask questions for details about people by telling what you already know. Ex: Looking for info on John Smith, born July 1900 in France, died September 22, 1999, in Los Angeles, CA, USA?? Anyone know what this site is?? (Note: I don't know a John Smith)
Finally, how long have you been searching? Have you made major headway? I've made a lot of headway in about a month and found out a lot, but there are just a few missing pieces. Any free sites that you can think of would be helpful.

I'm Victoria...any help you can give would be very very appreciated.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Hi there,
I have used Family Tree Maker for about 10 years now and their interface is really easy to use. I have liked it and have had no reason to really look for another. Really, any of the programs will do as long as they support the GEDCOM format. It is this format that allows you to change from one genealogy program to another without having to re enter your information. (which is really important when you have several people in.

Your second question about the message boards: there are two that are really popular the first one is at
http://genforum.genealogy.com/

the there is
http://genforum.genealogy.com/

Both of them have boards for last names, counties, states, and countries. I have found both of them to be invaluable in my research. The nice thing is that once you have registered, an e-mail will automatically generate to notify you that there has been a reply. Give as much information as possible when you post a message. This will help reduce duplicate efforts.

Genealogy has been my hobby for several years. My husband says that my eyes glaze over when I do genealogy and that I am "unreachable". It was really funny. This morning I was on Yahoo! answers and I made a comment about a funny question that I read. He then looked at me really serious and said. "What happend to genealogy? You used to LOVE that?" He sounded really disappointed. Anyway, any genealogist will tell you that success in genealogy comes and goes in spurts! Sometimes the information just starts unfolding before your eyes where other times you could be at the same dead end for several years. Thats the beauty of genealogy... Patience and perseverence are key. The thing with genealogy is that you are never "truly done" For every person you find, there are always two more to be found because everyone has a mother and father.

I could probably give you some good free sights if I knew what states or countries you are searching. I have hundreds of links in my favorites. You probably already know all of the "big basic ones" if you have been doing it for a little while. If you would like to E-mail me via my profile and let me know the geographical areas that you are interested in, I will let you know about any sites I know of in that area. In my years of searching I have over 27,000 people in my tree and these are all ones that I have found myself, without importing anyone elses information. I don't enter information until I have found the documentation myself. That way, I'm not wondering where I got any of my information.

One final piece of advice, always document your sources. Many genealogists don't bother in the beginning. Documenting your sources not only lends credibility to your research, it also creates a paper trail so that you don't have to duplicate your efforts time and time again.

I hope this helps. Blessings and take care.