[Freegis-list] A Question....

[John]

Hello - FreeGIS Community.

         I am new to GIS, in fact this is my first attempt to research the 
subject. I know newbies can be a source of irritation to the experienced 
and long time members of a community so I will limit my posting to 3 
statements and 1 question:

         1. I have done some preliminary research and I understand that 
Geocoding is essentially the process of matching records in two databases: 
your address database (without map position information) and a reference 
street map or other "address dictionary" (with known map position 
information). I believe that this is basically accomplished by appending 
the Lat and Long of the address to the record entry.

         2. I have a list of US Street addresses that I want to Geocode to 
establish if they lie within certain geographic boundaries. I want to use 
some of the US Census Bureaus Geographic Boundary files/Definitions (Census 
Block Group) as the Boundaries for this list of addresses.

         3. I have looked at various "Open Source" or free applications and 
I have not really been able to discern if any of these tools have the 
functionality I am seeking.

Question: Can anyone please direct me to a Free or Open Source application 
that will allow me to Geocode the street addresses I have - and then let me 
use the Census data to determine what Census Block Group the address 
belongs in?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Best Personal Regards,

John Testini