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Looking for Georgia Confederate soldier pension applications? No problem. Do you need to find early 20th century Ohio death certificates? Covered. Curious about who served time in the Colorado State Penitentiary? Easy.

In the not-so-long-ago old days of genealogy research it could take half a dozen letters, phone calls, and maybe even an expensive pilgrimage across hundreds of miles to find this information about our ancestors.

These days, tracking down those ancestral tidbits is just a mouse click away.

As always, you need to be careful about the genealogical rubbish piled up all over the Internet. But, when you surf to the Web sites managed by state archives, you can click with confidence.

Each state has an archive that houses and preserves historical documents, and luckily for genealogists, each state has a Web site.

Start your archival hunt at Council of State Archivists . Here you'll find links to each state archives.

For ultra-convenience, many states have put genealogical data online. In some cases, you can find digital images of actual documents - those Georgia Confederate pension applications, for example.

Not quite as convenient, but almost, are indexes of genealogical data. The Colorado penitentiary index is an alphabetized list of individuals who tangled with the justice system from 1871-1973.

The Missouri State Archives has embraced the Internet like gangbusters with both digital images and indexes. Here you'll find more than 2 million images of St. Louis probate records and thousands of images of death certificates. There are indexes of naturalizations, land patents, coroner's records, birth records, and soldiers.

Even if you don't find the data you want online, most state archives Web sites explain where and how you can find it. Nevada, for example, has a handy link on its home page, "For Genealogists." Follow this link and you'll learn which records are in the state's possession.

Many of the archives' Web sites have online finding aids to help you understand what's in their collections. These finding aids are essentially inventories of the various collections. Some are more detailed than others. New Mexico online archives has lists of specific documents housed there.

Most of the archive Web sites provide specific instructions for researchers, outlining their research policies and fees. Some will send microfilmed records via interlibrary loan.

Also, when you're surfing the archives site look at some of the volunteer opportunities. Many of the online indexes were compiled by volunteers, and some of the indexing projects can be done from your home.