The true joy of genealogy lies in sharing your successes and failures with family members. The trouble is you often don't know who your extended family is or how to reach them. One way to find them is to share your family history information with groups and organizations which sponsor and maintain large databases for this specific purpose.

Four groups which are well known in the industry for doing such sharing are:

The Family History Library

Submissions may be made in one, or in all of these three ways:

1. A standard GEDCOM format which was introduced to you in computer checklist 11.
2. A Pedigree Resource File which places your family names into the master search engine of Family Search. Thus your information would be available on the Internet at familysearch.org and on CD format so it would be available at over 3500 Family History Centers world-wide, and to individuals who wish to purchse it. Also the Pedigree Resource File allows for your notes to be made available.

Family Tree Maker Products

Submissions may be made via:

1. A standard GEDCOM format which was introduced to you in computer checklist 11.
2. A Family Tree Maker submission from the export file within the program to include on one of their Word Family Tree CDs. An index to the information will be made available freely on-line and in every Family Tree Maker genealogy program sold by the company. Your name, address, as well as individual data on each person, will be kept private until the person purchases the program and CDs which contain the information. Then contact will come through the interested person to your individual e-mail site.

Ancestry.com

Submissions may be made via:

1. A standard GEDCOM format which was introduced to you in computer checklist 11.
2. At their Web site at www.ancestry.com. Information on your family will be shared via the Internet so individuals can contact you. They have recently formed another web site known as www.myfamily.com which allows other family features.

KindredKonnections.com

Submissions may be made via:

1. A standard GEDCOM format which was introduced to you in computer checklist 11.
2. At their Web site at kindredkonnections.com. They also have a genealogy computer program on line that allows you to do your data entry on line in a secure area that is assigned to you. You don't have to own the program or have it installed on your computer. That information is then indexed into their large lineage-linked data program with the index once again made available to anyone. In order to read your notes and documentation, an individual must either pay a nominal fee, submit their own genealogy information OR take part in one of several "extraction" projects on line to make other information available to more individuals.