You can't do it all on the Internet.........

but you can do a hell of a lot of it!

You can't do it all on the Internet - the message we were given when we attended the free talk about family research a couple of weeks ago at the Family Records Centre.

Well, all I can say is that so far I have done almost all my research exactly through that channel.

Through a combination of web sites (small, large, free to use and via trial subscriptions), email and mailing lists, I have probably tripled the amount of information I had when I began this project.

Here are some of the web sites I have found particularly useful:

NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages I would have been facing an impossible task researching my NSW ancestors had it not been for this excellent web site. Good to see the NSW Govt putting tax payer's money to good use, for a change. Lists all births, deaths and marriages registered in NSW since 1788 (excluding recent stuff.)

Free BMD Another gem for family researchers. Allows you to search for births, deaths and marriages registered in England and Wales since 1837.

Ancestry.co.uk Available only via subscription but really good for searching through UK census information. Register for a 14 day free trial and use it as much as possible!

Claim a Convict The place to go to not only check if your ancestor was possibly a convict, but also to find other people who are claiming them. Through this site I have made a number of good contacts, including one or two new friends.

Granted, the information I have been looking for is relatively "recent" in genealogy terms: 1800's and later. Once I get back further, looking into births in the 1700s is probably going to require visits to places like Shropshire and so on, digging through dusty old church and parish records.

You might not be able to do ALL of your research on the internet, but you can make pretty good inroads.