GOOD GENEALOGY WEBSITES The Sheldon Family Association would be the first place to start. I joined the Sheldon Family Association in 1982 when I first started doing genealogy. At that time they put out a little typewritten newsletter, collected and kept records, and had annual meeting-reunions “back East”. Sounds like a little, actually was a lot. They were a big help to me as I started the journey of filling in all the blanks on 11 generations of Sheldons in America. The Sheldon name was so important in our family that several cousins have Sheldon as their middle name. The Association sent me little typewritten sheets of info on each of my direct ancestors, for each generation. They have a rather complicated numbering system, but they explain it. In the “Sheldon Magazine”, for instance, our Isaac Sheldon is S#5, the true head of this Sheldon family in America. They also have some information wrong and it was like pulling hen’s teeth to get them to change their records. They still don't have everything right; I'll try to note where my information differs from theirs. Keep in mind, however, that I haven't been a member of the SFA since the late 80s. As I learn new information they have, I'll incorporate it if it changes anything I’ve put here. Some of the same dedicated people there now were important to the Association when I first joined. The Sheldon Family Genealogy Forum at Genealogy.com is a great place to go if you have questions. Click on “Community”, then on “Message Boards” then enter “Sheldon” in the “Forum Finder”. There are other routes to get to the same place. The regulars at the Sheldon Family Association are often onboard answering questions. I recently found some questions regarding one of our Wisconsin Sheldons. The questions were from two years ago and there weren’t any recent posts, so I didn’t want to spend too much time on it. I posted simply that I had a ton of information on these people and would be willing to help. Because I’m registered with the forum, they can email me if they so desire. A great tool. At Genealogy.com you can go to hundreds of “forums” just like the Sheldon Forum. You can look up family names, city, county, or state names, important immigration ship sailings, important events. If there’s a forum you would like to see but do not see, you can request to start one yourself. When you find a forum you want to join, you click on it and add it to “MyForum” and then you’ll begin your group of fora. There will be a “frame” on the left and the links to your fora will run down that frame. Very convenient. Websites costs money to keep up and running. Be aware that they’re all trying to sell you something. The MyFamily.com group, below, is the largest. They say that half of their information is free, and they do provide great services, but you have to wade through the stuff they’re selling. MyFamily.com is the leading provider of free, private Web sites for families around the world. MyFamily.com provides a unique venue to connect and strengthen families on the World Wide Web. In a secure, password-protected environment, MyFamily.com users can hold family discussions, create online family photo albums, maintain a calendar of family events, share family history information and buy gifts for family members quickly and easily. MyFamily.com Inc. is the parent company for other sites named below: genealogy.com; rootsweb.com. Rootsweb.com is a great website. It’s the oldest and largest free online community for genealogists. The site contains extensive interactive guides and numerous research tools for tracing family histories. On RootsWeb the site’s WorldConnect Project contains more than 209 million ancestor names. The RootsWeb Surname List consists of a registry of more than one million surnames. RootsWeb boasts approximately 22,000 mailing lists and 125,000 message boards. RootsWeb also hosts such notable websites as Cyndi’s List, USGenWeb Project, National Genealogical Society, FreeBMD, and Genealogy.org. Genealogy.com also a good site where you can create family web pages, photo albums, message boards. The US Gen Web Project. is a fabulous site. Go there to learn more. Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet has a wealth of information on genealogy from how to get started, to building your own genealogy website, to advanced genealogy studies. Everything you ever wanted to know about genealogy can be found here. Home Page | Gateway to the Archives Official Website of the Burch, Nickel, Sheldon, Griffin, Saemann and Brazelton Family Joann Saemann West Jordan, UT Copyright © 2002 Joann Saemann Last Updated – 20 August 2008 This candle was lit on the 11th of September, 2001.