At a recent genealogy conference, a gentleman walked up to me after my Google Earth for Genealogy class and declared, "You know, 20 years ago we had to have security clearance to use this technology!"

His statement reconfirmed my belief that Google Earth offers powerful tools that we, as genealogists, need to harness. Geography and genealogy go hand in hand, and Google Earth has some of the answers to the challenges we face in our research.