If you're reading this column, then you're most likely interested in learning about the latest happenings in the genealogy world. One way you can learn about these happening on a weekly (or daily) basis, without making much effort, is by subscribing to one of several free genealogy newsletters available online.

The granddaddy of the e-mail genealogy newsletters is Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. Dick Eastman began writing this newsletter several years ago with a small, free subscriber base. His mailing list has exploded sizewise, and the newsletter is now sponsored by Ancestry.com. He e-mails it out weekly on Mondays and covers topics as diverse as conferences, new technology, new software, and interesting genealogical topics in the news. The newsletter is also available online, and the new issues are posted there every Wednesday. You can also subscribe to the newsletter via e-mail.

The Ancestry Daily News is edited by Juliana Smith, and as the name implies, it is e-mailed to subscribers daily. The newsletter is also online. Each issue of this newsletter contains feature articles, a list of new databases at Ancestry.com, announcements, tips, and the product of the day at Ancestry.com. This newsletter also has a Weekly Digest version for those who want their news on a weekly basis. You can subscribe to the newsletter at the Ancestry home page or by sending an e-mail message to ancestry_daily_news@anclist001.ancestry.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. This newsletter has really taken off in recent months. There are currently more than 800,000 subscribers.

Missing Links has been edited by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, and Julie Case since 1996. The newsletter has been RootsWeb's weekly genealogy journal since mid-1999. The newsletter is sent via e-mail weekly on Wednesdays and covers a wide range of topics, including announcements, events, success stories, interesting articles, and Web links. The newsletter is also available online—with both current issues and archived issues. You can subscribe to the newsletter by sending an e-mail to Rootsweb-Review-subscribe@rootsweb.com and only putting the word "subscribe" (no quotes) in the body of the message. Do not put anything in the subject line.

RootsWeb Review is also edited by Gormley and Case and has been circulating via e-mail since mid-1998. This newsletter is also sent out weekly on Wednesdays, but its focus is news about RootsWeb, new Web sites, and new mailing lists. The combined circulation of Missing Links and RootsWeb Review is more than 685,000. The newsletter is also available online—both current issues and archived issues. You can subscribe to the newsletter the same way you would subscribe to Missing Links (e-mail the address above with the word "subscribe" in the body and nothing in the subject line).

Family History News is edited by Rob Thompson and contains genealogy news primarily pertinent to the United Kingdom. The newsletter started in March 2000 and is sent via e-mail weekly on Sundays. Thompson covers new books and software of interest to the U.K. market, as well as reviews of Web sites and upcoming events. The online version of the newsletter is easily accessible, and you can subscribe to the newsletter by sending an e-mail to UK-FAMILYHISTORYNEWS-L-request@Rootsweb.com and putting the word "subscribe" (no quotes) in the body of the message. Do not put anything in the subject line.

Family Tree Finders is a Monday-through-Friday newsletter written by Rhonda McClure. Articles explore the entire range of genealogy topics and are as pertinent for beginners as they are for more experienced genealogists. You can subscribe to the newsletter online, and you can view archived versions of past newsletters too. The page that is supposed to contain the current issue hasn't been updated since March, but the archives page contains all of the issues, including the current issue.

The Genealogy Newsletter was just announced in mid-September with an initial circulation of 26,000 and an anticipated circulation of 100,000 after the first year. According to the announcement, the newsletter is "a free, community-wide, grass-roots newsletter for details on current events, topics, and information of use to active family seekers." The newsletter will be posted at GenealogyNewsletter.com, but it wasn't there as of this writing. I am guessing that you’ll be able to subscribe from that page as well.

With all of these free newsletters available by subscription, it's hard to imagine that active family historians could be wanting for current information pertinent to the genealogy world. Subscribe to a newsletter or two today, and see where everyone else is getting their news!

Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS, is the managing editor of Genealogical Computing, editor of the Board for Certification of Genealogists’ newsletter OnBoard, the creator of Clooz—the electronic filing cabinet for genealogical records, and a frequent contributor to Ancestry Magazine. She can be reached via e-mail at liz@ancestordetective.com or at gceditor@ancestry.com.