It is quite common these days for families — even nuclear families — to be flung all over the country or even all over the world. A woman living in New York, for example, might have a sister living in California, parents living in Florida, and a brother living in Shanghai. And next week she may be dropping her son off at college in Texas or saying goodbye to her daughter who is off to spend a year studying abroad in Africa. This sort of life is more and more common. The good thing is that we also have more and more resources that we can use to stay in touch: email, social networking sites, video conferencing, chatting, texting, etc.

In addition to staying in touch with family, no matter where they happen to be on the planet, it is also possible to use modern technology to reach back in time and connect with family members that you never knew. There are now a number of websites that specialize in the gathering and organization of historical records that are of interest to genealogy researchers. Most of the websites are free but some may have special features that require a fee or a subscription is users want to access them.

Many people find genealogy research to be very rewarding, even enlightening. Finding out that an ancestor fought in an important battle, was an inventor, a politician, or had a fascinating career can be a very exciting experience. Another benefit to doing this research is that it is possible to find distant relatives who are still living and communicate with them about their genealogy research. It’s a fascinating fact that as it is easier and more common to live farther and farther away from each other physically, it is also becoming easier to stay connected and to even make new connections to family history and living relatives.