STAUNTON -- Librarians at the Staunton Public Library said nearly 80 percent of the searches people do there are to connect with the past. That's why on Friday they wanted to teach the public how to do genealogy and ancestry searches online.

Last year, 13,000 searches were made through the system. Changes made online will make it easier for those trying to narrow down information from millions of records.

Jennifer Vickers has been tracking her ancestry since 1970 and she was hopeful about the changes.

“When you go into the genealogy room you really aren't sure really what all they have. You don't really want to look through everything, so they've taken some of that guesswork out of it,” said Vickers.

Special links on the library's website now direct people to historic maps and local histories. Thousands of searches have already been made with those sites this year.

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