Genealogy is the study of a family ‘s lineage and ancestry. Genealogy covers everything from a family tree to when and how people lived almost a century ago. The word genealogy is derived from the Greek, and means the study of family history and descent. Usenet hosts a variety of newsgroups related to the topic of genealogy and extensive research by the newsgroup community has expanded genealogy research since 1995.

On Usenet, the basic objectives of genealogical research is to identify ancestors and their family relationships. At a basic level, identifying and recording the family tree by determining such things as:

Historically, genealogy has been a very important fields as family connections between nobility were crucial to the idea of inheritance and the passing down of titles and ruler ship. As an example, if a king had no direct heir, the next closest heir would have to be found. Detailed genealogical records ensured that the passing down of titles would never have to rely on incomplete facts. Despite this, many differing genealogies would often crop up, allowing multiple people to lay claim to a title of ruler ship or inheritance.

With Usenet, genealogy is now much easier to research than at any other time in history. Despite the rather large amount of false information that pervade the online genealogical world, Usenet and corresponding Newsgroups cater to many legitimate and incredibly valuable resources available, allowing people who, fifty years ago, would have had to spend many years tracking down their family roots to do so in months, or even weeks. The affordability of genetic analysis has also opened new doors in the field of genealogy, letting normal people access hard evidence of a connection to another person or family branch. While genetic analysis isn ‘ t entirely accurate, it is so close that it is considered by most people to be certain evidence of a family connection.

Genealogy Newsgroups BasicsTop

Usenet has long been a great resource to connect to a newsgroup community that’s active and specific to your interests. The following guide will help you with the basics on getting started with your Usenet account.

Accessing the thousands of newsgroups Usenet has to offer have some essentials to consider

Usenet Account – In order to access newsgroups, you’ll need an account with a newsgroup server provider. They will supply you with a username, password and a server address. You’ll need these in order to set up your newsreader.

Newsreader – A newsreader is a software program that will act as your primary gateway between you and the Usenet community. With the supplied username, password and server address, you’ll be able to browse newsgroup categories and groups and download messages. We suggest Outlook Express to access these groups.

Using Outlook Express, please follow the directions below.

For Vista Users, you can set up Windows Mail for Usenet access

To access Newsgroups

 

For Mac Users, we suggest MT-NewsWatcher. Instructions on how to set up your newsreader can be found here.

Genealogy Sub-Topic NewsgroupsTop

Some time ago, during the infancy of Usenet, only one genealogy Usenet newsgroup existed: soc.roots. As more genealogy researchers began to participate, messages were posted to the extent the newsgroup became overwhelming with genealogy sub-topics . Since then, a variety of newsgroups dealing specifically with the sub-topics of genealogy were created and continue to bloom in Usenet today.

Soc.genealogy.computing is one of the most popular genealogy newsgroup that covers information about various genealogical programs and topics, mostly concerning software assisted genealogy research.

Accessing Genealogy on Usenet Top

In order to access these newsgroups, its required to have access to Usenet. NewsDemon provides a free public server for this purpose. Just use the nntp address, login, and password below. No strings attached. Although some internet service providers allow free access to these newsgroups, many times messages are incomplete or scrambled, or they only cover a very small timeframe (retention).

It is recommended that a premium Usenet providers is used, such as Newsdemon.com provides, in order to properly access the rich information available on genealogy that Usenet can provide.

Newsdemon.com provides free access to these genealogy newsgroups and paid access to 1000s of other newsgroups, completely uncensored. Additionally, text newsgroups range to about 800-1000 days old. These newsgroups allows members to access messages and follow forum-type conversations more than 2 years old, an important factor when following genealogy topics and conversations.

Secondly, you will need a Newsreader, a client that downloads the messages and organizes them accordingly, to access genealogy newsgroups. With Newsdemon.com Usenet access, Newsrover , an award winning Newsreader is available free with membership.

A tutorial on how to set-up Newsrover for Usenet and Newsgroup access can be found here. The video tutorial walks the user through installation and set-up of Newsrover.

Once you have your Usenet account and Newsreader set-up, you can search for Genealogy Newsgroups that meets your specific needs. There are a variety of active Genealogy Newsgroups on Usenet. Here is a list of specific topic Genealogy Newsgroups you may be interested in.

List of Genealogy Newsgroups Top

To access these newgsroups, you will need to have nntp server access.