You can make a career out of genealogy! How?

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have turned their avocation into a vocation, either part-time or full-time. Indeed, there is a need for many people with skills and knowledge of family history research. Not only can you become a professional genealogist who researches family trees for other people, but there are many related positions available as well. In fact, for a few of these positions, you don't even have to be a skilled genealogist.

I thought I would describe a number of the job positions that you can find that are related to family history research.

NOTE: I will point out that very few of these positions will provide riches. Sure, Alex Haley did well after writing a book about his ancestry. However, unless you have the writing skills and publishing credentials to match those of Alex Haley, you are quite likely to earn less. Probably much less.

Most people select a career in genealogy because they love it, not for the financial rewards. If you are still interested, read on.

Professional Genealogical Researcher

Becoming a professional genealogy researcher is probably the most obvious path to making a living in genealogy. If you enjoy researching your own family tree, if you believe you can find records, and if you have a strong detective instinct to find the truth at all times, you are a candidate to become a professional genealogist.

Some professional genealogists work for clients who hire them to research an entire family tree. However, it is more common to find employment researching local records about specific ancestors or lines for clients or other professional genealogists who live some distance away and do not have convenient access to records in your locality.

Most professional genealogists specialize in specific, narrow areas of expertise. You might become an expert in local records and history near where you live. Another common path to becoming a professional is to become an expert in one or a few ethnic groups, such as French-Canadians, Pennsylvania German immigrants, Hispanics, Black Americans, or other specialty areas. Of course, you can always become expert in both local records and an ethnic group or two.

Anyone can claim to be a professional genealogist, whether certified or not. However, most professionals do have certifications. Knowledgeable clients typically ask for a person's credentials before hiring, whether it is for genealogy research, preparing income taxes, or performing brain surgery. Certified professionals generally are able to find more clients, which results in more income. If you are not yet certified, you probably won't be happy with the income you can produce.

Board-certified genealogists, whether professionals or highly skilled hobbyists, must pass rigorous tests and subscribe to a code of ethics. I would suggest that you settle for nothing less than that. Most certifying organizations also offer an arbitration service, should a problem ever arise with the conduct or work of a certified member. Arbitration services help protect both the client and the researcher.

You will want to be listed on the Board for Certification (BCG) roster at https://bcgcertification.org/directory/ and in the Directory of Professional Genealogists (APG) at http://www.apgen.org/directory/. Many clients will first look in those directories when looking for a professional to hire.

Many professional genealogists live in either the Washington, D.C. area or near Salt Lake City, Utah. This is obviously because of the convenient access to records in those locations. However, the fact that many pros live in those areas also means there is more competition in each area. Becoming a professional in either Washington or in Salt Lake City is probably more difficult than in other areas. Also, not all records are available in those locations. A professional genealogist in Maine or Louisiana or Ohio or Texas or Nova Scotia may find more work as well as generate higher income than equally-skilled researchers in the two genealogy "hot spots." After all, someone has to find local records that are unavailable elsewhere, and you typically have fewer competitors outside of Washington, D.C and Salt Lake City.

You can find two accrediting organizations in the United States as well as other certifying bodies in Canada, England, and elsewhere. There is no restriction as to residency. In many cases, professional genealogists who live in Canada, England, or elsewhere may obtain certification by a U.S. board, and those who reside in the U.S. may obtain certification in another country. In the U.S., both the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) and the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) offer certifications.

You can find information about the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) at http://www.bcgcertification.org while the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists, or ICAPGen, maintains its web site at http://www.icapgen.org.

Researcher for heir tracers and asset recovery firms

When a person dies, the person's estate usually is divided up according to the instructions in that person's will. When there is no will, the estate is divided up amongst the person's heirs. In either situation, someone has to find the heirs. Some individuals lose touch with family members before their deaths, and the estates may go unclaimed.

Heir tracers try to find inheritors of these unclaimed funds. Heir tracers tend to do a lot of subcontracting since heirs frequently live some distance from the deceased, which results in losing contact. These "lost heirs" are the ones the heir tracer seeks. The heirs are usually unaware that they have inherited unclaimed funds, stocks, bonds, or real estate.

Heir tracers have similar skills to genealogists but typically work with twentieth and twenty-first century records. They may occasionally look at nineteenth century records as well.

Heir tracers typically get compensated by one of two methods: (1.) they may be hired by a law firm and will be paid a set fee, or (2.) they may "free lance" to find heirs on their own, without an employer, and then charge a percentage of the inherited property when the heir collects.

The problem with becoming an heir tracer is finding clients. There is no national registry or any other method of effective advertising. Most heir tracers get started by contacting local legal firms, probate offices, and local genealogy societies. Business usually is slow for the first few years until the new heir searcher is able to build both a reputation for high quality work and a personal network of people who can refer business.

Writer of family history articles and books

Have you become an expert in some areas of genealogy? Perhaps you are an expert in French-Canadian records or in using the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or in the use of genealogy software. Whatever your area of expertise, share it! If you can write, you can help others and also earn money in the process.

Genealogy magazines and a few web sites will pay for genealogy articles. Payment varies from $50 to $500 per article, depending upon the length of the article, the topic covered, and the reputation of the author. A handful of national experts will command even higher prices, but you won't see those high prices when starting as a new author.

You could even start your own web site or blog. Many blog authors provide the information for free and then try to generate revenue by carrying banner ads or Google Ads. Typically, the ad-supported blogs generate very little revenue. A few web sites, such as Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, have provided private areas with articles available only to paid subscribers.

Don't want to write? You can also find a need for editors, copy editors, designers, marketers, and others who are necessary to publishing projects.

Lecture on genealogical topics

This subject is related to the "writer of family history articles and books" mentioned earlier. If you develop expertise in a genealogy-related topic, and if you are comfortable standing in front of a crowd and giving speeches, you can become a genealogy lecturer. Obviously, these won’t be in-person lectures as long as the pandemic is still raging worldwide but some of the better-known lecturers can find work even when delivering online, remote presentations. Whatever your area of expertise, share it!

Beginning lecturers usually give their talks for free although they may charge for travel expenses. Once your reputation starts to grow, you can command prices of $50 to $200 per lecture, or perhaps $500 to $1500 for a day-long series of lectures. A few nationally-recognized experts command higher prices, but you won't see those prices in your first few years of lecturing. Also keep in mind that most lecturers are invited to speak AFTER they have become well-known writers. If someone has seen your writing, they may seek you out as a speaker.

Assistance may be found at the Genealogical Speakers Guild at http://www.genealogicalspeakersguild.org/. Once you become an accomplished speaker, you will want to be listed in the directory of speakers that is available at the same web site.

Software developer who writes genealogy software

Are you a programmer? Do you enjoy researching family history? If you can answer "Yes" to both of those questions, you have an opportunity awaiting you!

Today's marketplace already has many Windows, Macintosh, Android, or Apple iOS genealogy programs, so competition can be stiff. Anyone who can develop genealogy programs that run “in the cloud” on web servers probably can command a premium payment.

The future appears to be bright for online genealogy programs, online and cloud data storage, online data matching, handheld computing, and other twenty-first century technologies. Do you know what LAMP refers to or the differences between MySQL and PostgreSQL? If so, you could be the next entrepreneur to launch a multi-million dollar genealogy product. The future appears to be in cloud-based genealogy applications, not in free-standing programs that are to be installed in a desktop or laptop computer.

To become a successful genealogy software developer, you don't even need to be a highly-skilled genealogist. You will, however, need to know all the basics and have an appreciation of the many ways in which people wish to use genealogy software. You also need to be willing to learn a lot more about genealogy.

Provider of genealogy information online (building databases)

As an individual, you can transcribe records or create scanned images of original records and place them online. Users seeking that information are usually willing to pay a reasonable fee to access your records. The web server software required to collect credit card payments is widely available for free.

Of course, you could "move up" and create huge databases to compete with Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, FindMyPast and other commercial database services. Creating large databases usually means hiring employees, including programmers, data acquisition experts, customer support, and others. However, it has been done before several times, and several genealogists have become wealthy in the process. You could be the next millionaire!

Scan old genealogy books and records

One "cottage industry" that appears to be doing well these days is the scanning of old, out-of-copyright books as well as public domain records, then selling the information on CD-ROM disks or online. You can spend hours scanning one out-of-copyright book and then sell many copies of it at rather low prices per copy. Selling 1,000 copies of a CD at $5 per disk can result in some attractive profits.

To become a successful merchant selling old genealogy and history books on CD or online, you don't even need to be a highly-skilled genealogist.

To see a few hundred of these "books on CD," go to http://www.eBay.com and search on "genealogy CD." I did exactly that when preparing this article, and eBay returned a list of more than 2,600 genealogy CDs. Most all of the providers of these disks appeared to be private individuals, not large corporations. You could do the same.

To see what is perhaps the largest and best-known provider of historical books on CD, look at http://www.archivecdbooksusa.com. (That website is not being updated anymore but continues in operation by listing its dealers, many of which still have an inventory of CD disks and also are adding new volumes as well.)

Like almost everything else, the technology of republishing out-of-copyright genealogy books is changing rapidly. Many years ago, most old books were republished on paper. In past few years, that has changed as books have typically been republished on CD-ROM disks. Now the wave of the future is online: most republished genealogy books are now available “in the cloud.” If you want to be competitive, you probably should do the same. Of course, there is nothing wrong with offering the same books in all three media: on paper, on CD, and online! Plan your business accordingly.

Teach genealogy classes

Many community colleges offer genealogy courses, as do a variety of other facilities. If you have education credentials and are also a genealogy expert, you can teach. You need to be familiar with developing lesson plans and with developing courses. Most educational facilities will be very interested in your education credentials before making a job offer.

Archivist, librarian, or society administrator

Not everyone has to be a genealogy researcher. You can find employment at many libraries, archives, societies, book publishers, and elsewhere. Archivists and librarians typically have to possess very specialized education and job skills. Administrative positions typically are less demanding. Don't overlook “side interests” or hobbies that can help you in what might appear to be a non-genealogy job. One expert genealogist I know found employment and financial success as the director of member services at a large genealogy society with a paid staff. She was a very effective director of member services because she understood what benefits members typically seek, and she was able to design membership campaigns to meet the needs of genealogists.

Genealogy vendor

More than one genealogist has created a successful and rewarding career by selling books, CDs, software, blank forms to record your findings, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and other tools of the trade that appeal to genealogists. You can become a merchant serving the genealogy community. Nowadays, that means developing a web site.

Summation

How much money can you make with these genealogy-related careers? There is no simple answer. It all depends on where you live, what kind of skills you have, and how you market those skills. Whatever the income, it certainly beats a 9-to-5 job down at the local factory!

Here are some organizations that can help:

• Association of Professional Genealogists - http://www.apgen.org
• Board for Certification of Genealogists - http://www.bcgcertification.org/
• The Family History Library - http://www.familysearch.org
• Genealogical Speakers Guild - http://www.genealogicalspeakersguild.org/
• National Genealogical Society - http://www.ngsgenealogy.org

The following is a press release from Othram:

Othram, the leading forensic sequencing laboratory for law enforcement, is pleased to announce the appointment of Carla Davis as Chief Genetic Genealogist. Mrs. Davis will lead efforts to scale Othram’s domestic and international genealogical research operations.

Carla Davis joins Othram after a year-long collaboration in which she led genealogical efforts to restore names to unidentified persons in Virginia, Alabama, and her home state of Mississippi. A member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Davis has applied autosomal DNA testing to genealogical research, since 2016, to help over 200 people of unknown parentage identify their biological families. Leveraging advanced methods, including Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA testing, her research has led to the identification of familial relationships that extend back to the 1700s.

“I am incredibly honored to join Othram and become part of a team dedicated to making our world a safer place,” said Carla Davis. “Othram has emerged as a leader in forensic DNA sequencing, demonstrating a commitment to making this technology as broadly accessible as possible, so that victims and families can get the answers they deserve.”

Othram is the world’s only laboratory purpose-built to combine genome sequencing with advanced human identification applications. The laboratory, based in The Woodlands, Texas, is also the only facility in the United States or Canada offering end-to-end, in-house processing from forensic evidence to investigative leads. Over the last three years, this technology has helped law enforcement crack hundreds of cases at the local, state, and federal level, many of which had been unsolved for decades.

“Othram is building the underlying infrastructure to deliver justice to all victims and their families,” said Othram CEO David Mittelman. "We are excited to welcome Mrs. Davis and leverage her unique expertise to support genealogical research for investigations worldwide.”

About Othram Inc.

Othram is the world’s first private DNA laboratory built specifically to apply the power of modern parallel sequencing to forensic evidence. Othram’s scientists are experts at recovery, enrichment, and analysis of human DNA from trace quantities of degraded or contaminated materials. Founded in 2018, and located in The Woodlands, Texas, our team works with academic researchers, forensic scientists, medical examiners, and law enforcement agencies to achieve results when other approaches fail. Follow Othram on Twitter @OthramTech or visit Othram.com to learn how we can help you with your case. Visit dnasolves.com to learn how anyone can make a difference in helping solve the next cold case.

Anne Knowles believes that places provide important information about historical events. The University of Maine professor and graduate coordinator in the History Department has made an academic career studying the relationship between geographical circumstances and major societal shifts, exploring topics from Welsh emigration to the United States to why American entrepreneurs struggled to match the productivity of the British iron industry. Now, Knowles is working with a team of historians and geographers to create a digital platform for students and educators to trace the geographies of the Holocaust and connect victimsʼ stories to the places where they happened.

The project was recently awarded a $150,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Digital Humanities Advancement Grant, which supports innovative, experimental or computationally challenging digital projects that can scale to enhance scholarly research, teaching and public programming in the humanities.

“I have been very fortunate to receive a number of NEH grants for my Holocaust research. This one will enable me to share the results of years of work with a global audience. Mapping history with GIS is now mainstream in the Digital Humanities. Itʼs exciting that the University of Maine can contribute to this important trend,” Knowles says.

While Nazi actions were often recorded and can be mapped with geographic coordinates, the places of Holocaust victim experiences are difficult to map because their locations are vague or unknown and can only be located relatively.

You can read much more in the University of Maine web site at: https://bit.ly/3QFPlsB.

This is a follow-up story to my previous article, Kentucky’s Floods Took Appalachian History With Them, published at https://eogn.com/page-18080/12876700 on August 8:

Decades worth of Appalachian history was damaged in the flash flood three weeks ago.

Flood water broke through the Appalshop archive in Whitesburg, which held over fifty years of history. Now, a lot of the memorabilia is damaged.

“The idea of losing all of that would be devastating, and also as an archivist, it’s my responsibility to take care of these things so it’s, in that sense, very important to me,” Appalshop archivist Caroline Rubens said.

Appalshop staff and volunteers are now working hard to save whatever they can, cleaning through 24,000 damaged items.

You can read more in an article in the wkyt.com web site at: https://bit.ly/3K7yEDI.

Dublin's grande dame hotel, the Shelbourne—actually employs a genealogy butler. Guests can send relevant information, such as ancestors’ names, dates of birth and death, and names of villages, to resident genealogist Helen Kelly, who can then comb through records to help paint a fuller picture of a family tree.

Since starting at the hotel in 2007, Kelly has helped hundreds of guests trace their Irish heritage. The process is fairly straightforward: After receiving the relevant details and completing her research, she schedules an hour-long meeting to share everything she has discovered (in person or over Zoom). From there, she can direct interested visitors to one of five record offices in Dublin. “My consultation with the guest eliminates time wasting on their part,” she says. “I know from what I research online what particular office will best serve their purpose for the next phase of their research.” Those offices include everything from the General Register Office for births, marriages, and deaths to the National Library of Ireland, which “holds a great deal of records, including Roman Catholic parish registers up to about 1880,” she notes.

Some 70 million people worldwide claim some Irish heritage, and for those fortunate enough to be able to travel to investigate their roots, Ireland tries to make it easy to do, with or without the aid of a genealogy butler. The government even hosts its own website, irishgenealogy.ie, which lists church records and civil registers of births, marriages, and deaths. Those who can prove that a grandparent was born in Ireland can even apply for Irish citizenship. Considering that an Irish passport is tied for third strongest in the world, according to Arton Capital’s Passport Index, a ranking of the world’s passports, this could save quite a few travel headaches depending on where you currently claim citizenship.

Americans (and to a lesser extent Canadians) are by far the largest percentage of tourists that Kelly sees. About 31 million Americans can trace their roots to Ireland, so it’s no surprise that the country does a brisk business with U.S. tourists looking for their lineage. The major exodus to America was from 1840 to 1870, the famine years in Ireland. “That was when it really surged,” says Kelly. “But since that time, we’ve always exported people,” she adds with a laugh.

You can read more in an article at https://bit.ly/3AwwNVT.

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

I often receive e-mails asking questions about converting genealogy databases. The questions usually are more or less like this example:

My organization has been entering data for a long time in a general-purpose database program, not a genealogy program. We use Microsoft Access (or FileMaker Pro or SQL or some other general-purpose database program or Excel spreadsheets). We have thousands of entries in our database. We now want to put this information on the Web (or on CD-ROM or in a book), and we want to use the report generation capabilities of the Brand X genealogy program. Can we convert our Access (or other) database to GEDCOM and import it into the genealogy program?

The quick answer is, "Yes, if you have enough time and money. However, you will undoubtedly find that it is possible but not practical."

Genealogy programs are generally written by very talented software developers who spend thousands of hours developing their programs. Tying relationships together, generating pedigree charts, generating Web pages, producing GEDCOM files, and other such tasks has consumed hundreds of hours of these talented programmers' time. After they have written the software one time, they can sell copies of their programs again and again to customers for a rather low price. If they sell enough copies, they can generate a profit. By selling multiple copies of their work, they are able to keep prices low enough for the masses to afford it.

If a given software developer creates the various required software routines and then finds very few customers, the prices will be prohibitive. If we multiply the thousands of man-hours required by a reasonable hourly rate, the resulting charges would be thousands of dollars when few copies are sold.

Now let's examine Microsoft Access, FileMaker Pro, Excel, and other generic, general-purpose database and spreadsheet programs. These programs generally are great for storing large amounts of data. You can store any data fields that you wish; you are not constrained by some software developer's idea of a perfect database structure. You can "roll your own" as you please. You can sort the data in any of a myriad of ways. However, you cannot easily generate reports, create pedigree charts, or create GEDCOM files. When it comes to genealogy-specific needs, your Microsoft Access or FileMaker Pro or other general-purpose database program is less useful than even a free genealogy program.

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/12889327

If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077.

Let’s fast-forward 48 years and look in our crystal ball. You know the one: the crystal ball on your desk that has 1024-by-768 pixels. It is a winter evening in 2070 A.D. at the Rencher Memorial Genealogy Center in Salt Lake City. An employee is working the evening shift, answering calls from people interested in their ancestry.

Sitting in his cubicle, the employee hears the VoIP phone ring. He swivels in his office chair and touches a button on the micro-headset in his ear. Through the room’s integrated sound system we can only hear one side of the conversation:

“Good evening. Thank you for calling the ‘Check Your Ancestry Hotline.’ My name is Alan. May I have your Social Security Number please?

“Thank you. Let me enter that number into our database.

“OK, for security purposes, would you please sit directly in front of your computer’s web cam? Yes. That should be good. Let me double-check… Yes, the retina scan verifies your identity. How may I help you this evening, Miss Smolenyak?

[Long pause here]

“Oh, I don’t think that is such an unusual story. We hear similar tales all the time. I am not surprised that your grandmother compiled the family tree years ago but neglected to make backup copies. After all, making computer backups was a MANUAL process back in the good old days. Many people didn’t do that. I have heard many tales of family trees that were lost during the flood of 2025, the hurricanes of 2042 and 47, and other disasters.

“Luckily, we now have all the information in the Public Ancestral File version 7 data base. We usually refer to that database as “PAF7.” We can almost always reconstruct your family tree within minutes. How many ancestors would you like to find this evening?”

“12 generations? Yes, that should be simple. That will cost $24.95. Would you please swipe your credit card through the slot in the front of your computer?

“Thank you.

“Now let’s get started. I am obligated to tell you about the PAF7 database. It is based on the latest DNA technology. Each living person’s DNA was entered, including all 3,278 genetic markers for each person. Those are referred to as the “Greenspan Genealogy Markers.” Yes, the database contains the DNA markers of every living person in the world as of its conception date in 2022. Of course, every newborn child’s DNA has also been entered ever since that date.

“The computers then calculated the DNA of every person’s ancestors back 1,024 generations. The documents of the national archives of every nation in the world were scanned and saved as digitized images, as were many church records, vital records, tax lists, military records, and many more resources. The result was a database of reconstituted ancestral data. In spot-checking by independent auditors from leading genealogy societies, the database has proven to be 99.999% accurate when compared to various genealogy records. In fact, the database appears to be far more accurate than most written genealogy records.

“OK, that is the end of the description of PAF7. Do you have any questions before we proceed?

[a short pause here]

“Well, I will be giving a hands-on demonstration of that on this year's Roots Magic’s Cruise to Mars. You might think about joining us.

“Yes, most of the presentations will be given during the voyage in the Roy Stockdill Lounge.”

[a short pause here]

“Great. Let’s get going. Which ancestor would you like to start with?

“Your grandmother Megan? Certainly. Let’s see what we have on her…

“Oh yes, here she is. Let me click on ‘derived pedigree.’ Yes, we have extensive records on her. It appears that she was a genealogist and actually submitted the information herself. The PAF7 database has assessed her information at a very high 99.5% degree of accuracy. Apparently she never knew about her great-great-grandmother’s indiscretion with the gardener, however.

‘What’s that? Oh yes, that’s just one of the little surprises one finds in the family tree when using PAF7. I am sure we can find others. After all, these people were not just ancestors, they were also humans. They experienced all the issues that we still deal with today. Some things never change, do they?

“Yes, her ancestry appears to be almost entirely from eastern Europe. I see several small villages listed here. Shall I send that pedigree chart to you in e-mail?

“Yes. Let me click on this icon. Is your e-mail address still jennifer-smolenyak@aol-google-yahoo.com? OK, the chart is on its way now, along with 138 pages of supporting documentation.

“Were you also interested in joining a heritage society, such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Daughters of the Confederacy, Descendants of the Korean Conflict Heroes, or something similar? I don’t see any qualifying ancestors in your grandmother’s ancestry, but we can usually find someone in some other branch of the family tree who has a descendancy from a qualifying person.

“Great! That heritage society verification costs an extra $12.95. Could I ask you to swipe that credit card again?

“I am going to conduct the Heritage Society Search. This will take a minute or two as the computers scan through several million qualifying ancestors to see if they can find your DNA sequence in the list of descendants. That’s a total of 24 billion possibilities. The search shouldn’t take too long… Ah! Here it is now.

“I see that you have qualifying ancestors for the Daughters of the American Revolution, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, as well as the Descendants of the Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of the Kings of Britain, sometimes called the Royal Bastards.

“Yes, that last one is one of the more desirable societies these days.

“Oh, wait a minute! You also have DNA derived from Genghis Khan, so you also qualify for membership in the General Society of the Horde. Of course, most everyone else qualifies for that one!

Wait, here’s another one: the Minority Ancestors of America Society. Yes, they are a difficult society to join. You have to prove your line of descent from an ancestor that arrived in North America involuntarily. That was the organization founded by Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Burroughs. After all, Tony needed a heritage society that he could join!

“I am sending you the qualification certificates for each of those societies by e-mail. When you fill out the forms on your computer, you will see that each certificate has a unique bar code printed on it. Just forward the appropriate certificate to each society’s headquarters by email. Each society’s membership secretary will scan the bar code from the page, and you will receive your membership card a few seconds later by email. What could be simpler?

“Their addresses? I’m not sure. Our database only shows people, not societies’ addresses. However, you should be able to find all that information online on Cyndi’s Granddaughter’s List. Yes, you can start with a search on Google3. That should find it.

“Of course, most of those societies are only online these days. Yes, actual street addresses seem to have disappeared after the merger of the New England Historic Genealogical Society with the National Genealogical Society, and the Society of Genealogists. The new organization sold all their buildings when they converted all their holdings into digital libraries. Yes, the Laura Prescott Memorial Library now has hundreds of thousands of online subscribers.

“The same thing happened to the Sharbrough Center for Southern Heritage. Yes, that’s the one. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Now, I’ve sent your ancestral detail in text form, and I assume you will be printing it out. Did you want to also receive it in electronic format? The file will be in GEDCOM6 format. That way, you can add new details of your own and automatically upload them to PAF7 on the web. Yes, the data can be used in any computer running the Macintosh OS 42.3 or later operating system.

“Windows? Golly, no. We haven’t had a request for that in years. Perhaps a local computer museum can help with that. Yes, that’s right. Cyndi’s Granddaughter’s List again.

“Is there anything else that I can help you with this evening?

“Certainly. You still have a credit on your account for another 3,078 ancestors. That credit is good for two years. You can call us back at any time within the next two years to continue. Of course, we do offer a 99-year-guarantee on database accuracy.

“In the meantime, if you have any questions about genealogy and how to keep records, I’d suggest that you check with Eastman’s Online Genealogy Encyclopedia. This is a huge resource that genealogists all over the world collaborate on. Lucky for us, it really took off after Dick Eastman collapsed and died at his keyboard with the image of the Escape key imprinted on his forehead.

“Yes, that’s right. Cyndi’s Granddaughter’s List will find it.

“Good night and thank you for calling the Rencher Memorial Genealogy Center.”

The Dublin Port Archive covers the history of the Port from 1707, offering a unique insight into how Dublin Port shaped Dublin City. The Archive is comprised of 75,000 photographs, 30,000 engineering drawings, 600 historical registers, yearbooks dating back to 1926 along with a ‘Name Book’ for employees from 1906 to 1925.

Commitment to Preserving Port Heritage

Dublin Port Company is committed to preserving port heritage and culture, a commitment reflected in Masterplan 2040 which commits to the integration of the Port and the City, setting policy drivers such as making a positive impact on Dublin and its citizens.  Heritage and the facilitation of its public access are essential to achieving this goal. However, physical access often clashes with conservation, particularly when it comes to historical documents. 

The collections from the Archive are currently being catalogued and the new Dublin Port Digital Archive is an online resource containing examples from the collections allowing accessibility without compromising the archive materials.

The online collections include newly released Newspaper Books  Photographic Collections   Historical Maps  Engineering Drawings and much more.

You can read much more in an article in the dublinport.ie web site at: https://bit.ly/3Rdhver.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

Thousands more new and exclusive English parish records published  

Findmypast adds records for Suffolk and Staffordshire this Findmypast Friday 

Thanks to Findmypast’s longstanding partnership with the Family History Federation, thousands more exclusive parish records have been published this week. 

Suffolk Baptism Index 1538-1911 

Over 307,000 records have been added into this existing collection, covering 232 churches and the years 1813-1900. Thanks to the work done by volunteers at Suffolk Family History Society, these baptism records could reveal the parents’ names of your Suffolk ancestors, their baptism dates and where they lived, taking your family tree further than ever before. 

"This latest release completes the set for 1813-1900 for Suffolk baptisms and adds to other Suffolk records already on Findmypast.  We are hugely grateful for the efforts of all the volunteers involved in transcribing, checking, checking again, and then formatting the information for publication. Some of them work from home (wherever that is) from films and fiche, some are able to go into the record offices and see the records there. We hope to bring more transcriptions to Findmypast over the coming months.” - Suffolk Family History Society 

Staffordshire Baptisms 

Courtesy of Burntwood Family History Group, a further 141,000 new records across 28 churches have been added into this existing collection, which now stands at 2.1 million records. Many include original images, where residences and fathers’ occupations may be found. 

Staffordshire Marriages  

Another 70,000 records have been added into this collection from 19 churches. With some going back to the 1560s, researchers may learn more about their ancestor’s residence and age, plus details of witnesses on the original images. 

Newspapers 

Delve into more recent history this week with thousands of pages from 1990-1999 across 64 newspapers. 

 New titles: 

·         Trinidad Chronicle, 1864-1885 

·         Midland & Northern Coal & Iron Trades Gazette, 1875-1884 and 1886 

·         Leytonstone Express and Independent, 1877-1912 

·         Jarrow Guardian and Tyneside Reporter, 1872-1880, 1898, 1909-1910 

·         Surrey Independent and Wimbledon Mercury, 1882-1905 

·         Haltemprice & East Yorkshire Advertiser, 1995 

 

From an article by Bobby Bennett and published in the competitionplus.com web site:

"You know your family is badass when they name a colony after you.

"Buddy Hull is blaming it on ancestry.com, the DNA-based genealogy website where patrons spit in a cup, send it off and wait for weeks to learn how many famous kin-folk they have.

"That's what the Texas-based [drag racing] Top Fuel driver Hull did, and the results have him knee-deep in tracing the family tree.

"'No one in my family really truly knew how our family got to the U.S.,' Hull said. 'Four years ago, I really took it upon myself to learn. And so I did the typical, I spit in the cup and sent it into ancestry.com, and they got me started.'

"Sure enough, Hull realized he was a member of a family with a reasonably famous military heritage.

"'I kept digging, digging, digging, and it actually got very addictive,' Hull said. 'I spent two to three hours a night looking at the thing. And to boil the fat off of it, and we triple, quadruple verified it, my family first came over here from Hull, England, and settled what is the area of Massachusetts which used to be called the Hull Colony, which I think is just so cool.'"

I think Buddy Hull's description of the fascination with genealogy also applies to many of us. You can read more in the article at: https://bit.ly/3CiIyAK.

Comment: I don't know who writes the headlines for that site, but maybe we can all contribute and buy that person a spell checker!