Since the 1990s, when the Internet with emailing
and the World Wide Web became more and more popular, genealogy, research on the
origins of families, gained a new impetus in many countries. New ways and
much easier access to archives and other sources which formerly were only
accessible with more difficulty, or not at all, and above all, fast and simple
communication, even international and intercontinental, today make it possible
that the oral and partially written ancestral traditions existing in many
families may be checked against original sources, and existing pedigrees to be
expanded both deeper into the past as well as in width.
In addition there are unlimited
possibilities, of course, by the simple and fast communication with other
genealogists, who somewhere in their pedigree touch or share branches in the
widely ramified branches of our family tree. And here is the place where I
want to thank many, many people who have helped me to collect all these data
and information. It is only possible to mention just a small selection of
names:
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Ned Benson |
Ricardo Scheihing |
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Jeff Clayton |
Karen Bell |
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Gary Agre |
Sara Shorin |
Celia Mitschelen |
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Rudolf Theurer |
Peter, Klaus, Günter und Ruth
Zerweck |
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Astrid von Velsen-Zerweck |
Thomas Scharnowski |
and many,
many more … |
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Now the third stage how to use the internet
in genealogy is to publish all the collected data in the WWW. If the
program used (here: TNG GedView) allows to edit data
directly in the network, not just to upload occasionally updated intermediate
results, then the current state of knowledge is accessible simultaneously by
all interested parties, at any time – which was not possible with book
publishing and not even with the earlier internet programs. In extreme
cases it becomes even possible that several genealogists work simultaneously on
different branches of the same pedigree,
modifications and new results being
immediately visible to all visitors.
On the other hand, this widespread and open
accessibility of personal data of course also may be dangerous. For this
reason, names and data of all living
people generally are not visible to non-registered visitors.
Registered attendees, however, can be
authorized to view such otherwise hidden data of living people in certain
branches of the family tree. It is just one of the objectives of this
internet publication that each family member should be able to review his own
data and data from his/her immediate relatives - and if something is wrong – to
ask me for correction.
Now I hope that you enjoy browsing thru our
family tree. Before starting, please read the little
introduction. Then it should not be difficult to become rapidly familiar
with the structure and the possibilities of the program.
January 20,
2010
Günter Zerweck