I think that many people have heard that it’s a Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. If we didn’t understand it before, I think we all do now.

These are interesting times. But we are lucky. We have the Internet. We have Skype and Zoom, Facebook and Twitter, email and more ways to keep in touch with friends and family and strangers. We have online games, ebooks, YouTube, Broadway stars making videos, Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals every weekend that we could never see before, virtual museums, operas from the Met, the arts are coming through for us after years of so many people trying to defund the arts in public schools.

And we have genealogy. Because there is so much available online, we can keep doing genealogy. We’re a little bit stunted. We still need records that are only available from inside the Family History Library, or others that need to be ordered from archives and courthouses around the country or around the world and those places are closed or just not filling orders right now because they are short staffed.

But there is a lot we can do in genealogy. So if you’re wondering if you should contact me about your research, yes you should. I always begin with what I can do online. I might get stopped when I need some records to move forward, but I can get started. If you want to work with me, instead of me working for you, we can do that too. I have one client who calls me regularly on Skype and we work together. Whatever your genealogy needs, there is still a lot I can do for you now.

If you want to get your family information online to share with relatives, I can help you with that too. Want your own custom site rather than just sharing on one of the big sites? I can help you set up a web site, or I can set it up for you.

Because when we’re isolating, family is important. What better time to learn more about your family history or share it with the rest of your family?