Even though both sets of Sean Stark’s grandparents live thousands of miles away, they were able to watch him roll over for the first time, listen to his first spoken words and see his first steps. In fact, they will never miss any of Sean’s important milestones thanks to the Stark family Web site, which Sean’s mom affectionately calls her 21st century scrapbook.

"A few weeks after Sean was born, I was really upset because I’m very, very close with my family," explains Cindy Stark. "I was upset that they were never going to know Sean, but this is the next best thing. They do know Sean."

From the time Sean first started showing in Cindy’s tummy until now, 19 months later, Ted Stark has faithfully documented his son’s growth by posting on their family Web site pictures and videos of him doing everything from crawling to opening holiday gifts. And believe it or not, Ted says, "The actual mechanics of building the site itself are really simple."

It’s true. You don’t have to be a computer-tech whiz to build a family Web site or spend a lot of money doing it. Many Internet providers offer free space to subscribers, and building the site can be as easy as point and click in some cases (see Resources).

It’s a great way to get the feel of what it’s like to post pictures and work your way around a site, Ted says. Companies such as www.homestead.com, www.thefamilywire.com, www.siterightnow.com and www.ICDsoft.com, which the Starks use, offer site creation tools and hosting for monthly fees ranging from about $XX to $50 per month; most are commercial-free.

Interviews with a number of family Webmasters yielded the following advice when considering your own clan’s Web site.

• Economy Web packages usually provide about 50 megabytes of space (memory). If you’re posting videos, you could need as much as 300 MB. Remember the higher the resolution of the pictures you post, the more space it takes, which is why most Web sites limit pictures to 72 dpi (dots per inch).