So you want to trace your family tree, but you don't want to spend hours in a dusty library combing over yellowed pages.

Or you're put off by the prospect of flying across the country to visit dark courthouses to find who your daddy's daddy was.

Thanks to the fast maturing of the genealogy industry, your quest may be easier than you think.

"Tracing your family history has been absolutely revolutionized because of the Internet," said Loretto Szucs, a genealogist with Ancestors.com, a subscription-based genealogy Web site based in Salt Lake City.

"It's been so wonderful. At any time of the day or night you can go to your computer and there's so much available online now that can give you a wonderful start."

Faster access to paper records isn't the only perk the Internet has provided. It also helps "find cousins and relatives who may have the information you seek," said Myra Vanderpool Gormley, a Seattle- based genealogist who writes a syndicated column on the subject for newspapers.

Gormley said people don't have to rack up frequent-flier miles visiting their ancestors' hometowns.

"Many people waste money doing that when the records are easily accessible on microfilm or online," Gormley writes in an e-mail. "Access to records and information are often right in your own back yard."

The task of tracing family roots has long been seen as too daunting for blacks because many family lines were fragmented by slavery.

"It's a big obstacle, but (assembling a genealogy) is very possible," said Ruthann Patterson, a Colorado Springs woman who has been researching her family tree for 13 years.

Several black genealogy sites offer access to slave records that have now been put online or compiled in databases.

And last year, the Mormon church published records from the post- Civil War Freedman's Bank for newly freed slaves, making ancestral records available for as many as 12 million black Americans.

The information, which comes on compact disc, includes family names, birthplaces and names of former slave owners.

The Freedman's Bank Records CD can be purchased for $6.50 at www.familysearch.org, or by calling church distribution centers at (800) 537-5971 and asking for item 50120.

"(Genealogy) has been popular vocation in the (United States) for many years," said Gormley.

"But it has become more popular because the information is easier and cheaper to access."

The box at left has some tips to get you started. There is more information on Life 3.

Good luck and happy hunting!

WHERE TO FIND HELP

Here are some local groups and places to help you get started:

The Genealogy Department at the Penrose Public Library offers census indexes for all states and census microfilm for Colorado and New Mexico, directories and handbooks for locating government offices, libraries and historical and genealogical societies. The library can do interlibrary loans with the National Archives and other libraries. It also has books on genealogy. Hours of the Genealogy Department are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays and noon to 9 p.m. Mondays. 20 N. Cascade Ave., call 531- 6333, Ext. 2252 or 2253.

The Family History Center, sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has a vast amount of research materials, data and expertise in genealogy. The center has more than 2,000 books and access to hundreds of millions of names of deceased people. 150 Pine Ave., 634-0572.

The African-American Genealogical Society provides free classes on tracing your roots. Call Candice McKnight, 520-9784.

The Pikes Peak Genealogical Society offers genealogical workshops and speakers on research methods. The group has spent the past six years creating a tombstone registry that provides names and information from tombstones and sextons' records from local cemeteries. The group has included the information in 10 books. Call 574-5116.

REACHING FOR YOUR ROOTS

TO GET STARTED

"Start at home," said Myra Vanderpool Gormley, a Seattle-based genealogist who edits the newsletter for Rootsweb.com, a free genealogy Web site. "The biggest regret most genealogists have is that they waited too long to ask their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles questions and now they are gone. You may be able to find records about your family, but when the family stories are gone, they are lost forever, unless someone records them."

Send a letter to all your relatives making them aware of your project. Interview as many relatives as possible. Get names, dates, places of birth, deaths, marriages.

When interviewing relatives, use a tape recorder or video camera. Also come up with a comprehensive list of questions that go beyond where they were born and to whom.

Look for "home sources" - materials that include biographical, historical or cultural information about your family. They include items such as a wedding band with the marriage date etched on it, a resum, a funeral program. Also search for family Bibles, photo albums, scrapbooks and old letters.

Write down everything you discover. You can start with a notebook.

Organize by date all materials you find, including information from interviews with relatives, your "home sources," letters or photographs.

SOME SEARCHING TIPS

Remember, tracing your family roots can be fun but it is also serious research. Approach the project like you would a term paper, being careful to verify everything you include in your written record. Here are some things to know:

Try cataloging information on family lines using recipe or index cards. Once you get deep enough into the research - surveying five or six family lines, perhaps - you might want genealogy software. Software such as The Family Tree Maker or Reunion can help you keep track of mounds of data.

Use paper records of births, deaths, marriages and military service to verify oral histories from relatives.

Be aware the Internet can be an invaluable asset or an unbelievable curse. It offers massive amounts of records. But it may be difficult to search and verify them all. Treat online resources as just another tool, not the only one.

Use the local library for Internet access if you don't have it.

Be patient. It takes time to find records, verify them and document them.

"You can't get discouraged easily," said Ruthann Patterson, a Colorado Springs woman who has been researching her family tree for 13 years. "You have to be consistent in your research to be sure you can back up what you put in your family history."

PLACES TO LOOK

Try these places places to get vital information:

Yourself. Then work your way backward.

Online. There are dozens of Web sites that can help you start your research online. Some charge fees; others are free. Some of the free ones include: rootsweb.com, usgeneweb.org and afrigeneas.com, a site that includes how to research slave data. Genealogists suggest using free sites first, then, if necessary, going to subscription sites, such as Ancestry.com or HeritageQuest.com.

Cemeteries. A tombstone can tell you a lot about a relative, including date of birth, age, whether they were married or served in the military. If nothing is on the headstone, try the caretaker's office; there might be information on cause of death, etc.

Courthouses. Look at marriage, death and divorce records, deeds, wills and probate records.

Newspapers. Maybe your ancestors were in the papers. The Pikes Peak Library District keeps old editions of The Gazette back to the 1800s on microfilm.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

For more about tracing your family tree check out these resources:

BOOKS:

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy," (MacMillan Distribution $17.95) by Christine Rose.

"Black Roots: A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African-American Family Tree," (Fireside Books $16) by Tony Burroughs.

"Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy," (Betterway Publishing $18.99) by Emily Anne Croom.

"Family Pride: The Complete Guide to Tracing African-American Genealogy," (Hungry Minds Inc., $10.96), by Donna Beasley, Donna Carter, William Haley.

ONLINE:

www.myfamily.com - a free, password-protected Web site that allows you to create your own family Web site where relatives can post photos, family tree information and e-mail.

usgenweb.org - another free Web site that includes links to county and state records. Good for researching vital statistics data. Also offers free genealogical record-keeping forms, such as family group forms and pedigree charts.

rootsweb.com - a comprehensive free Web site with searchable databases and links to city, county and state vital records information. Also has an on-line genealogy community that communicates through message boards and lists.

afrigeneas.com - a Web site for learning how to find and use slavery records to research black family trees. It includes links to databases of slave data.