I was in my mid-twenties when the last of my immediate family passed away. Like most people at that age, I was more interested in getting on with my own life than in researching who my ancestors were and what their lives were like. Being raised by my grandparents, I would have had the perfect opportunity to learn about their lives and what they knew about their ancestors, but the subject was never brought up.

As I grew older, I became curious about the generations of people before me, and vowed that when I had time, I would enter into the world of genealogy and learn about these unknown ancestors. Illness forced me into an early retirement, and when I started feeling better, I went to junior college and obtained my degree.

That same year, my New Year's resolution was to go to the nearest LDS Family History Center and begin my search. That was about four years ago, and I immediately became addicted. All I had to begin with was a 3"x5" card with the names of my grandparent's parents and siblings listed on it.

I knew the town where they were born, and began my search there. I discovered a lot of information and began to piece my family together. About a year ago, my husband suggested that we go online because there was supposed to be a lot of great genealogy material available there. What an understatement that was!

Once I was online, a whole new world of genealogy opened up to me. I now spend most of my waking hours doing research from home, having abandoned my once-favorite LDS Family History Center.

Several months ago, I decided to take advantage of the many people using search engines I had discovered online, and try to see if I could find any living direct descendants of my Mundy/Magers family line.

One of these descendants had a peculiar name, so I searched to see if I could find him. Because I also knew his wife's name, I matched addresses and phone numbers until his and his wife's given names matched up.

I sent off a letter snail-mail to him, and almost immediately received an e-mail response. I had indeed found a cousin. He put me in contact with other cousins of our line, and I now have a new extended family. What a thrill it is for me to have such wonderful relatives, and all because of the resources I have found on the web.

Now the best part. One of these cousins and I were talking one day on the phone, and she asked me if I knew the address of the cemetery where our great-great grandfather, Isaac Mundy, was buried.

She said that she and her son had tried to locate the site several years prior when they were on a trip to the Kansas City, Kansas area, but came up empty- handed. I gave her the address, and before I knew it, her son, who lives near Kansas City, was e-mailing me to tell me he had located the cemetery at White Church in Kansas, and had visited with the caretaker there.

It seems he was searching for our g-g-grandfather's gravestone and couldn't find it when the caretaker came up to him offering his assistance. My cousin told him his story, and the caretaker said that the gravestone was being refurbished and would be returned in a month or two. My g-g-grandfather was buried next to a Delaware Chief named Ketchum, as they were friends.

Many of the Delaware gravestones, including Ketchum's, were being restored along with our great-great-grandfather's, and the Delaware Indians were going to have a ceremony at White Church when all of the stones were re-installed. My cousin contacted the person in charge of the ceremony, and they insisted that it wouldn't be much of a ceremony unless some Isaac Mundy descendants were present.

One thing led to another, and on April 26, 1997, my new-found cousins and I (about 15 of us) attended the rededication ceremony of our ancestor near the spot where he came from Virginia to settle in Kansas, in about 1835.

What an experience it was! Family members came from California, Oklahoma, Texas, and Illinois to be there. My husband and I spent almost a week in that area visiting the towns my ancestors haunted, and museums where their artifacts are exhibited.

I even got to touch a 170-year-old coverlet that was made by my g-g-grandmother, Lucy Foster Hines Mundy, the wife of Isaac Mundy. A cousin has since sent me a piece of this coverlet, and I can't tell you what that has meant to me. She didn't even know what she had in her possession until I sent her a picture of the coverlet, snapped while at the museum.

Genealogy and the web have changed my life in a way I never thought possible. I am positively addicted to both. I have a greater understanding of the wonderful people who came before me that made it possible for me to exist today.

I have met numerous cousins online and off who have enriched my life and shared their valuable information with me. I have planted the genealogy bug into my new-found cousins, one of whom is 86 years old. Because of this, a lot of family history and heirlooms that might have gone unnoticed and possibly discarded will now be treasured and passed on to future generations.