Many people research their family's history and enter their family data into a software package like Family Tree Maker. Unfortunately, with the massive amount of information available on the internet - today's genealogists may conduct their 'research' by copying other people's family files on genealogy-related web sites like Gen-Forum or Gen-Circles.

The problem with accepting other people's research as valid is that if there are errors in the web-based data then there will be errors in your data - and the errors will be perpetuated by you when your files are copied by others who figure that your information must be correct. Its on the internet isn't it? It must me true.

Fortunately, today there is another resource available to genealogists via the internet that will probably be much more accurate. On eBAy, on any given day, the genealogist can find literally thousands of books that relate to their research. Of these thousands of books, many hundreds can be bought in digital format on CD-ROM.

This is good for two reasons. First, the CD-books are much less expensive than paper books. For example, a county history published in the 1800's may cost anywhere from $50 to several hundred dollars - while you may find the same book, scanned into a digital format, for $10 - $25. Secondly, because these references are available to more genealogists for less money - the references cited in genealogies are much improved. (As any real genealogist knows: if you cannot cite a source - the data is suspect.).

When researching a surname or group of family names, the genealogist may be able to find one or more books that examine the specific names, or may be able to find a book that covers a lot of surnames (including the names of interest) within a State, County, or City.

The best CD-books are scanned into Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). A reader is available for every platform and operating system, for free, from Adobe Systems on thei web site. The Adobe Reader will allow you to read the book by flipping through the pages on your computer screen. Sellers that provide a quality product will also go to the trouble to link the book's index to the pages with Adobe PDF 'hyperlinks' so the reader can browse directly to the page of interest. A quality CD-book will also be searchable usig the Adobe Reader.

If you are a family genealogist like I am, don't neglect the extremely valuable resources available from a number of different sellers on eBay: the CD-ROM Genealogy & History books! They can generally be found in 'Everything Else:Genealogy' and in 'Books:Antiquarisn & Collectible.'