How To Map Your Heritage

Looking for your family often leads you around the world. Start with a home computer, but when you need to dig deeper, be prepared to branch out, hit the road and become a sleuth

GENERAL WEBSITES These are the most comprehensive websites, with links to dozens of specialized resources. A $ sign indicates a fee for access or membership.

--NATIONAL GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY www.ngsgenealogy.org/ 800-473-0060) $

--FEDERATION OF GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES www.fgs.org/ 512-336-2731) $

--CYNDI'S LIST www.cyndislist.com Links to more than 41,200 sites

--ANCESTRY.COM www.ancestry.com Links aplenty, including the Social Security Death Index, which has more than 60 million death-benefit-payment records $

--U.S. GENWEB PROJECT www.usgenweb.org Volunteers nationwide provide links to state and county resources

--SWITCHBOARD www.switchboard.com Locate people who share your surname in this nationwide directory

--ROOTSWEB www.rootsweb.com The Internet's oldest genealogy site lets you see who is looking for the same surnames that you are

--BRODERBUND www.genealogy.com How-to lists, megalinks and news for genealogy buffs

WHERE TO GO: WEST

--Sutro Library Research, San Francisco. Contains thousands of family histories; state, regional, county and town histories; and city directories. www.records.org/sutro.html 415-731-4477) $

--Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. Mormon records of 2 billion people in 64 countries--the world's largest collection--could soon be on its website. www.familysearch.org 801-240-2331)

CHINESE HERITAGE

To find immigrants who entered the U.S. under assumed names during the exclusionary period (1882-1943), when interrogation records show only adopted names, visit www.nara.gov/regional/findaids/chirip.html There you can search cemeteries to find ancestors' true surnames. For limited access to original Chinese family histories from the Ming and Qing dynasties at Columbia University's C.V. Starr East Asian Library, search www.columbia.cu/libraries/indiv/eastasia

HISPANIC HERITAGE

Bloodlines--blurred by intermarriages, name changes and the dominant use of matronymics--can be difficult to trace. The Denver Public Library houses 20,000 specialty volumes, plus periodicals, clippings and charts on early Spanish history. (303-640-6291)

JEWISH HERITAGE

These sites are attuned to specific patterns and customs, such as the Habsburg and Russian mandates that Jews adopt national surnames, the early Jewish tradition of passing on the mother's maiden name in a religious marriage rather than the father's in a civil one, and the tendency among early Jewish immigrants to Americanize their long, ethnic-sounding names. Begin your search at www.jewishgen.org or www.yad-vashem.org

AFRICAN HERITAGE

Slave marriages weren't recognized, so family records of descendants of Africans living in America prior to 1870 were often not recorded. But good paper trails do exist for black freemen who came as ship's crew members, not slaves. A good start: www.ccharity.com 212-491-2200, or www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html

IN THE MIDWEST