The Internet has made swapping family tree files a snap. In fact, at sites such as WorldConnect <worldconnect.rootsweb.com> and FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org>, it's possible to add several generations to your pedigree just by downloading a few GEDCOM files (the universal family tree file format). The downside of Internet genealogy is having to figure out which people in those GEDCOM files (if any) are actually related to you. Yes, the names may be the same, but names alone don't make a match.

Before entering that data directly into your master file, it's important to double-check it. But what's a genealogist to do with a file containing hundreds of names? Enter two new programs designed to deal with that problem.

GEN Matcher