A Decade of Cyndi's List

Ten years ago, on March 4, 1996, I posted online my first attempt at a personal web site. Our personal site had our surnames, articles, and several other things that we planned to expand upon over time. One small portion of the site was a list of links to genealogy web sites. It was one web page with more than 1,000 links. I had no idea that I had just created a monster that would take on a life of its own. Since that time I have been the coyote, and Cyndi's List has been the roadrunner--taking me on a frantic chase to try and keep up with it, while also periodically dropping a virtual anvil on my head.

The original announcement was posted on Roots-L Tue, 5 Mar 1996 with the subject line: "A New Web Site is Spun!" In that message I bragged: "The many resources include:...a categorized list with over 1,000 links to genealogy Internet sites." See the archived copy here. I had no way of knowing how big this little list was going to become, or what impact it would have on my life.

Since that day ten years ago life has not been dull. My son, Evan, was born (8 years old now). I've been through 5 computers and written three books. The site gained a corporate sponsor and then lost it three years later when Sierra sold the genealogy division. I have had the wonderful experience of traveling and speaking to hundreds of genealogy groups about this engrossing hobby of ours. Travel and trips have now been curtailed by family illnesses, but a break there means more time on the web site again. The ups and downs of running a site of this magnitude have worn me out often. But, about the time I want to throw up my hands and run away I get a big lift from one of the thousands of visitors to my site: I receive a nice message telling me how helpful the site has been in their research. That is all it takes so that I'm off and running full steam ahead again.

Cyndi's List began as a six-page written article for my local genealogical society. When I put it online on March 4, 1996 my intension was to continue growing the list of links so that they might be helpful to other interested genealogists online. That intension hasn't ever changed. However, the amount of time and effort certainly has!

• A categorized & cross-referenced index to genealogical resources on the Internet.
• A list of links that point you to genealogical research sites online.
• A free jumping-off point for you to use in your online research.
• A "card catalog" to the genealogical collection in the immense library that is the Internet.
• Your FREE genealogical research portal onto the Internet.

For anyone interested in learning more about using Cyndi's List, see the syllabus material created for my lecture, "A Guided Tour of Cyndi's List"

For anyone interested in the history of Cyndi's List this timeline will take you down memory lane: Cyndi's List - FAQ - Historical Timeline

• 251,235 total links
• 242,672 categorized links
• 8,563 "What's New" links submitted by visitors
• 684 individual web pages
• Visits through the front page: more than 43 million
• An average of 2 million page hits each month
• 1 part-time employee, Michele
• 1 periodic dabbler and caffeine-delivery person, Mark
• 1 full-time caretaker, Cyndi

To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the site I have given Cyndi's List an all-new layout with streamlined navigation. Now there is less white space with the content being moved up and to the left on each page. There is now a Google search box at the top of each page. Hopefully the rest of the navigation is more intuitive than in the previous version. The indexes, categories, sub-categories, and web page addresses are all the same. I have many more ideas and plans for things that I would like to do on the site. Michele and I have a big to-do list that we are whittling away at a little at a time. Come back and visit the site often to see how we progress.

I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of visitors to Cyndi's List over the last decade. Without you, your feedback, and your constructive criticism, I wouldn't have continued this long. Your ongoing support and enthusiasm for genealogy and the Internet have been an inspiration to me. Thank you for your many friendships and kindnesses through the years!