I received a message this week from an online reader who found one of John Mallo's columns on our Web site about Eden Prairie's McClay family, which lost sons in the Civil War and World War I.

http://www.edenprairienews.com/news/looking-back/eden-prairie-s-mcclay-f...

http://www.edenprairienews.com/continuing-story-eden-prairie-s-mcclay-fa...

She said that she had been researching her family history at www.myfamily.com and another family member had posted the article there.

I logged on and man is that site fun. Have any of you discovered great sites for researching genealogy? Do you have any suggestions for someone who is just getting started?

I've already learned things about my family I didn't know before. It's mind-blowing to look at the census records from 1920 and see who was living in my grandparents' house at the time -- even if the census taker spelled my dad's name as "Narlowe" instead of "Marlowe."