Genealogics

Genealogics is a free genealogical, historical website run by Leo van de Pas and Ian Fettes. It contains a very large database of mediaeval people and more recent Western Australian pioneers, with names, dates, events, pictures and secondary sources.

As of September 2007, the website contains details of over 514,000 people and is probably the largest reputable database of its kind freely available online. It has won The Genealogy Sleuth Excellence Award presented by Ancestral Branches at ancestralbranches.com. It is regularly referenced by the soc.genealogy.medieval newsgroup.

Background
The Genealogics website was created in 2003 through a collaboration between Ian Fettes and Leo van de Pas for the purpose of making the genealogical recording work of the latter available to the public and recording it for posterity.

The collection of the information displayed on Genealogics started in 1958. The data was originally contained on handwritten cards, each card contained information only for one person, and this collection has been microfilmed twice by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). In 1990 a computer program was written and the information on the about 250,000 cards was transferred to this computer program. By September 2007 this number has grown to over 514,000 entries.

A wide variety of genealogical subject matter is contained within the collection. The subjects range from Roman Emperors to Australian Aborigines and anyone in between, with portraits and biographies included wherever possible for notable people in addition to fully referenced genealogical details for all.

Genealogics is used by a wide variety of people, ranging from royalty and academics to professional genealogists. According to one academic, “Your ‘Genealogics’ website, apart from being an excellent source for genealogical research, will also be seen more and more as among the invaluable databases for historians, anthropologists, and other social scientists.”

The Genealogics collection has been used to produce two books; a third is in process. The first, “Sinners and Saints” which gives brief biographies of some 1175 ancestors of HRH Princess Michael of Kent, was reviewed in June 2007 in the magazine of the Society of Genealogists in London.

Genealogics is consulted by people all around the world and has resulted in references being made in sometimes surprising places, for instance in J. Randy Taraborelli’s “Once Upon a Time” The story of Princess Grace, Prince Rainier and their family.

Information and corrections are added on a daily basis and the website is updated on average once a month.

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