My dad's genealogical research -- hours and hours and hours of work -- looked so despondent at home, a series of binders filled with information. So much of it had been acquired by connecting with people the hard way (hello, U.S. Postal Service). It was a shame to see that it had reached a dead end on the shelf. Imagine what would happen if it was possible to share all of that, to bring similarly driven people together to take it further.

So I got kittell.org as a Christmas gift for him in 2008.