But there he stalled. He founded the Whitaker Family Researchers to help in his search and in the ancestral expeditions of other Whitakers. This is a group of people who are researching a surname. As a result, they all end up pulling together. They stumble across it.
Most people first look to see if they are related to kings and queens and royalty.
Then they get addicted. And new genealogy software has helped reduce traditional historical documents to computer compact discs. The interest is so keen that the National Genealogical Society holds yearly conferences. Early this year, a conference was held in Providence, in part because New England is home to thousands of original source documents. Still, while the Web has helped broaden genealogy's appeal to the masses, experts say, the resulting influx of newcomers and their lack of schooling in genealogy's research techniques are creating problems of accuracy.