Geni

by Allan Hoffman, Newhouse News Service

I've always wanted to work on a family tree, but I've never had the time for it. Now I've found the way: Other people will do it for me.

This may work for you too.

An online startup, Geni, is bringing the social networking craze - yes, as in youth-oriented spots like MySpace and Facebook - to the sometimes stodgy world of genealogy. By building a family tree online with Geni's free service, you can easily share your family tree with any relative who has an e-mail address. When your relatives add names and dates to their family tree on Geni, these new branches will be added to your tree, too. If you get enough relatives working on this, you can have a family tree with hundreds or thousands of relatives.