In other words, it's time to search for your roots, and the Web is the single greatest genealogical tool in the world.
Surveys often show that family research is one of the Internet's most popular uses.
So we'll be checking out genealogical Web pages with regularity in this column. Today's trip will be a short course for folks just getting started. The site is a bit gray and some of it must be downloaded, but the pages are filled with usable information, most notably a searchable list of more than 450,000 surnames. These sites will let you step off into the search for your roots. Just look out, Uncle Fred.