About 1996 I was an early pioneer of making family history available online (wardell-family.org). Seems commonplace these days, but it was new and unique for the time. I might do it different now, as privacy concerns are much more defined in recent years, and I while I was preparing all the material I wondered whether it was really worth the effort.
The Internet has brought about a number of significant benefits, however. One was the opening of contacts with people I'd never known, who were able to share some valuable material.
This picture of my mother was taken when she was five years old. It was kindly sent to me by a lady who had known her as a young woman, although she never provided many details about the relationship.
Some photographic restoration provided this charming picture. But for The Internet, it would have been lost forever.
The message here is that our history is rapidly disappearing. I read a quote recently that suggested all the details of our lives would be lost in two generations if we failed to document it ourselved. This is incorrect: it will happen in one generation.
