Paper is the past. Digital is the future. New technologies, ranging from the Internet to digital photography, have spawned an explosion in the popularity of genealogy. Software simplifies storing, organizing, and retrieving family tree data. Images of original records long locked away in archives can be viewed online. Research guides, databases, and the expertise of other genealogists are all readily available at the click of a mouse. In short, research can be conducted more quickly, and data is much more readily available to anyone with an interest in their past.