I've done some geneology research, myself. I'm at a dead end, as far as verifying the information I have. I will probably have to travel to Pennsylvania and see if I can gather documented/written information concerning my family in that state...it's been quite a fun project. Yes, it's also been a great learning of history education, as well.
Have you tried the Online genealogy site of the LDS Church (Mormons?) It's free and they have been gathering vitals stats. world wide for 50 years. They have the largest genealogical records in the world.
Also, Most LDS churches have a "reading library' where you research ancestors - or areas, countries, etc. and request the CD files which will be mailed to the library for your use, free, for 2 weeks or more.
(The story of how they built the vaults in the Utah mountains for storage of all these records is fascinating.)
http://www.familysearch.org/
(I've often thought it would be fun to have a "Genealogy" category on FR.)
hey - have you seen this one yet! We all need to save this in our "cause/alert file" - It's a reprinted article from a 1947 edition of the New England Medical Journal - on this news/Activism thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1380989/posts?page=1
and here
http://www.haciendapub.com/article28.html
Chilling - we have a lot of work to do!