A Genealogical Treasure Back Online

"Back before the Internet got started, I was indexing the GEDCOM files posted on GEnie and AOL," explained John Rigdon, owner of Eastern Digital Resources and creator of the original index. "As the Internet started to commercialize, I continued my work on GIWWW and began indexing more sites that had genealogical information."

The combined index contains over 10 million names across 5,000 sites, including special collections, USGenWeb Project sites, personal web pages, and the original AOL GEDCOM index. The index consists of a last name, first name and cross-reference number that ties the entry to a URL. Researchers will be able to instantly search for surnames across all of the sites indexed.

"We're pleased to be able to support this unique effort and working to help achieve John's vision," added Illya D'Addezio, owner of Genealogy Today. "One of the biggest complaints I here when talking to genealogists is that using the Internet for research is very time consuming. Combining the GIWWW with our Online Genealogy Index will be a major step towards simplifying the process."

When visitors search for their surnames in the Online Genealogy Index, Genealogy Today's primary search tool, a parallel search against the GIWWW database will now be initiated and the results will be integrated into a single output.

Enter the Genealogist's Index To the World Wide Web