Chances are that at some point in your research you'll find yourself working in an area of the world that is more than a short drive from home for you. If you are like most genealogists, you'll seek help for understanding what resources are available for that part of the world through magazine articles, informative books, and perhaps even the personal experiences of other genealogists.

Increasingly, the Internet can also enable you to investigate a location of interest without stirring from your computer chair. Informative Web sites offer the chance to learn about a region's or a country's history, culture, and resources -- essentially, to do background research before you actually invest in a voyage to its primary genealogical sources.

In the lesson that follows, I have chosen a specific location to use as a demonstration; although some of the Web sites listed are specific to that location, you can easily adapt the ideas to work for your own locations of interest. Note that this research technique also works for areas within your country -- either a town in the next county or across the country. Using armchair travel research doesn't necessarily apply only to foreign research!