Carnival of Genealogy - technology?

March's Carnival of Genealogy wonders what technology we rely on most to assist with genealogy and family history research.

• one piece of hardware (besides your computer)
• one piece of software (besides your internet browser),
  
• one web site/blog
  

Since I won't be able to wax poetic about my new MacBook (it is the center, after all, of my tech universe), I think the scanner would be my pick for the piece of hardware I depend on the most. It allows me to digitize borrowed family photos and to make copies of relevant printed materials such as journal articles, pages from books, newspaper clippings and correspondence. (postcard from Lake Wallenpaupack above)

Software is an even harder question to answer, but since I can pick only one, it will have to be the 9th upgrade of Reunion. I've been using this program since it's inception and every upgrade has brought something new and useful. My favorite features in the latest upgrade are "tree tops", which show from each family card, the names of the earliest ancestors and "pod cards" which export the family cards you choose to your ipod for perusal anywhere.

My web site pick on the other hand is easy - ancestry.com First, I was pleasantly surprised to find all the census information available there. On snowy days over this winter, I was able from home, to find, view and download census records for numerous ancestry lines. In addition, I found marriage, birth and death records and digitized copies of county and family histories that proved useful. So far I've been kept busy using US ancestry, and will be renewing for another three months. Perhaps at the end of the next three months, I will be ready to try the World version and begin learning how to read both British, Irish and German records!

I've had fun and found satisfaction doing genealogy research since I first began over 30 years ago, but I have to say that the ever increasing range and reach of technology has helped to make it ever more gratifying.