Genealogy Lesson 12 - Get a Genealogy Friend

I am in a rut at the moment but that happens from time to time.  I get lazy and genealogy becomes the last thing on my mind.  Real life takes priority and I have to walk away from the dead people.  It is hard for me to take a long break, knowing that I have a lot of people "following" my lessons.

 

Lately I have been on a mental vacation and it has given me time to think.  You see, I do not write blog posts or these lessons for the money or the fame...good luck with those!  I do these things because I like them and I tend to step back when they become too much like a job.  Once the fun is gone, I quit for awhile.

 

One of my biggest, general problems is that I do not have a real genealogy "buddy" - someone who keeps me motivated.  My wife has little interest in family history and my kids are too young.  It is just me and I only answer to myself in a lot of ways.  I have lots of genealogy "friends" but no one to do genealogy with. 

 

If I go to the archives, I go alone and no one gets excited when I make a big find.  It is somewhat of a lonely existence but that is reality for me.  Maybe that is why I do these lessons...to communicate with others of a like mindset.  I have lots of knowledge, especially about Virginia genealogy, and it would be a shame to keep it all inside.

 

You might be wondering, "where is the lesson here?" so here you go...get out there and mingle with others who are interested in genealogy.  Join a local historical society or start a blog.  Share what you know and take in what others are offering.  Genealogy is not the study of your family but the study of all families.  Treat it like a hobby to be shared and not something you do behind closed doors.

 

You do not have to spend a lot of time or invest a lot of money.  The point is to get involved with someone or something that will bring you back to genealogy when you get pulled away.  If it were not for my blogs and lessons, I might put genealogy down for months or even years at a time.  Instead, I feel some responsibility to my readers so they bring me back.

 

Humans are social creatures and need the encouragement of others to survive.  That is an extreme statement...but you get the idea.  For the health of your research, you need to be social about it.  Join the DAR or SCV...anything!  Find yourself some genealogy motivation, someone or something to depend on you.  You will quickly find that it is good to feel wanted, needed and relevant!

 

There are literally hundreds of groups that you can join.  Go to Google and search "genealogy society" or "genealogy group."  You should have no problem finding people who are interested in the same families and geographic areas that you are.  We all win when information is shared, as long as it is well-documented information!  The point is to just get out there, meet some new people and share your hard work with others.

Follow the minister

Here is a little something I have been doing lately in my own research that could possibly open up a new window for your research...follow the minister!  I have gone back and done researched the various ministers who performed the marriage ceremonies of my ancestors.  All you pretty much have to do is run their name through Google and see what you find and what pops up might surprise you.

Religion played a big part in many of our ancestor’s lives.  My wife’s family was mostly Catholic and my family was mostly Baptist, or so I assumed.  Once I started researching the names of ministers performing ceremonies for the various lines, I was surprised by the results.  It turns out that the Letts were pretty much Methodists and my wife's family actually had members of the Brethren in it.

Now, you have to take some of this with a grain of salt.  Just because a minister performed a service, does not mean that the couple attended his church.  Take my wife and I for example, we were married by the minister of my mom’s church, from when she was a young woman.  We have no affiliation with him, other than his connection with my mother.  However, he was obviously affiliated with my mother’s life.

You can help build the case by seeing who also married your ancestor’s siblings and perhaps a pattern will develop.  Finding the religion of a family can help your research because some faiths might indicate a distant heritage.  It also helps to paint a picture of the community in which your ancestors lived...who they interacted with at their church. 

So, the next time you see the name of a minister on a marriage license, take a few seconds and drop it into Google.  You may find that the minister had some historical significance of his own.  Maybe he wrote a book, started a movement or also performed the wedding ceremony for a president.  If nothing else, you will probably learn a little more about the life and times in which you ancestor lived.

Using old maps, Google Earth, deeds and census records to find your ancestral home place

One of the neatest things in genealogy is finding the actual homes or land where your ancestors used to live. You never know if the old ancestral home is still standing or if perhaps there is a family cemetery on the property. The problem is that most old deeds were written in such cryptic language that the average person cannot figure out what they were saying. All of those metes and bounds get rather confusing. However, there are some was to cut through the confusing terminology and find the old home place. I have done it many times and here is an example that you can use as a road map to finding your own.

When I look at an old deed, the only things I really focus on are the date, county, name of neighbors and any creeks, rivers, roads or other named boundaries. These are all you need to get started. Forget about how many poles and rods there were along one boundary line. Unless you are trying to redraw the entire property, all you need are the aforementioned items.

I am going to show you an example of how this works, using my ancestor Royall Spain of Mecklenburg County, Virginia as an example. I started by finding all of the deeds that showed him buying or selling any land in the county. His case is kinda simple because he bought only three tracts of land and basically sold only one.

In Royall's case, he bought part of the estate of his mother and father-in-law, Ann and William Harris. He then proceeded to buy land adjoining his property, to make one large tract that totalled roughly 155 acres. Royall later sold the entire tract to his son-in-law, Joshua Spain.

Here is a rough summary of each deed, providing the year, parties involved, the number of acres and the body of water upon which they were located. I did not include the names of neighbors in this example but you should jot those down as well.

1. 1821, Harris to Spain, 57 acres on Butcher's Creek
2. 1826, Norment to Spain, adjoining Spain, 66 acres on Middle Bluestone Creek
3. 1827, Harris to Spain, adjoining Spain, 31 acres on Middle Bluestone Creek
4. 1866, Spain to Spain, half of 155 acre tract where he now lives
5. 1870, Spain to Spain, remainder of 155 acre tract where he now lives

The main things that sticks out are the names of the creeks, Butcher's and Middle Bluestone. Looking at a topographic map of Mecklenburg, it does not take too long to find the named creeks. Sometimes you have to look at contemporary maps because names change, creeks get diverted or what have you. I know that the land I am looking for has to pretty much touch both creeks, or at least be between or around them. Zeroing in on that area is a good start.

Seeing that Royall lived on the land between 1821 and 1870, I can look at census records and get the names of his neighbors in at least 1850, 1860 and 1870. Those might come in handy later...

The next step is a bit tougher but you need to find a good map of the county in question, made near the time of the deed transactions. In this case, I know that Gilmer maps exist for Mecklenburg during the Civil War period. The Virginia Historical Society and the Library of Virginia both have copies to review. You cannot copy the ones at the Library of Virginia but the Virginia Historical Society offers copies for sale at their facility. (You should read an earlier article I wrote on the Gilmer maps....here!)

Using the creek names and the names of neighbors I picked off of the 1860 census, 1870 census and the actual deeds, I find that there is a Spain farm named right on the map. There are lots of Spain farms throughout the county but I can pretty much rest assured that the one in question is the Royall Spain farm. There are other family names as neighbors, including Lawson and Harris. If you recall, the Spain farm was part of the larger Harris farm. Royall's daughter also intermarried with the Lawson family. Add to that the proximity to Butcher's and Middle Bluestone Creeks and I have a preponderance of evidence here to prove that this is the farm I am looking for!

It is great to find the farm on an 1860s map but that does not help me much today. A lot of the roads and landmarks have changed so I need to turn the old map into a new one. I do this using Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth. I used Google Earth to find a modern satellite photo of the area with the roads and churches called out. I saved it to my computer and went to work.

I opened the satellite photo, along with a scan of the 1860s map, in Photoshop and shrunk the Google map until it was roughly the same scale as the 1860s map. I then changed the transparency of 1860s map and laid it on top of the modern image. It took a little adjusting but I had New Hope Baptist Church and two roads as fixed points on both maps. After about five minutes of fine-tuning the scale and transparency, I came up with one image that merged the old and new maps into what I would call...perfection.

Just look at the way the old farms fit perfectly within the modern tree lines. Look at the Harris, Spain and Lawson farms. You can tell that they fit within the boundaries of the woods like a glove! I was impressed myself over how well this turned out.

I now know that the Royall Spain farm was located near the intersection of modern-day New Hope and Skipwith Roads , specifically 36°43'58.74"N, 78°29'31.68"W. I have not gone down to the site to check for an old home or cemetery but I will eventually, powered by the knowledge of knowing where to look.

I realize that a lot of pieces fell into place in my example but it took more effort than I make it sound like. I had to go find the deeds and the maps. I had to do census research and a good bit of photo-editing. I make it sound easy but I admit that this type of research can be quite challenging. It might seem a daunting task to find the home of an ancestor that lived over 100 years ago but it is possible. When you do find it, with all of this work behind you, the reward is all the more sweet as opposed to someone just telling you where it was!

Mail Goggles...Google's new way to prevent drunken mistakes!

I just found out that Google has launched a new feature for their G-mail, e-mail service...Mail Goggles. The idea sounds crazy at first but the feature is designed to prevent you from sending tasteless or hurtful e-mails when you are drunk. The feature turns on late at night and on the weekends, when you are most likely to be intoxicated. You can also change its hours if you prefer to drink on weekdays.

Mail Goggles does not prevent you from typing an e-mail, it just makes it harder to send. You can type up a note and, when you try to send it, you are faced with five math questions. You have about one minute to enter the five correct answers or it well tell you to drink some water and go to bed.

Not that any of my readers need this service but I thought it was interesting enough to pass along! What will they think of next? If only Google could use their powers for something really important, like digitizing all of the public records in America. That would be a good use of their time and efforts but I guess I am biased, seeing as though I am a genealogist (and I do not drink)!

Footnote Pages Press Release

This is a follow-up to a posting I did yesterday, Footnote Pages. This is the actual press release from Footnote.com that will explain all of the specifics that perhaps I did not.

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Footnote.com Takes Social
Networking into the Past

Footnote.com launches
Footnote Pages at TechCrunch50

San Francisco -- September 10, 2008 Losing a loved one can result in a range of emotions, from the grief and sorrow to comfort, which often comes from reminiscing stories and memories with family and friends. The challenge arises when there is no single place where all of these stories can easily come together to be shared, enriched and preserved.

Now at Footnote.com, anyone can find or create Footnote Pages where users connect and share stories, photos, and information about the people important to them.

To kick-off the new Footnote Pages, Footnote.com today released over 80 million of these pages created from data from the Social Security Death Index. Most visitors will find existing pages about several deceased friends and family members already on the site.

Footnote.com was selected from over 1,000 applicants to launch Footnote Pages at this year’s TechCrunch50 held in San Francisco. Russ Wilding, CEO of Footnote, demonstrated Footnote Pages to an audience of over 1,500 investors, bloggers, and major media outlets.

“We encourage people to upload their personal shoeboxes of photos and documents to Footnote.com,” explains Wilding. “Now with Footnote Pages, friends and family can come together to share stories and memories about the people they care about.”

Described as Facebook for the Deceased, [emphasis added] these pages feature a photo gallery, an interactive timeline and map, and other tools that bring people together to create a more colorful and rich picture of the past. “Social networking is not only for the younger generations any more,” explains Wilding. “We are seeing Baby Boomers contribute and connect online in increasing numbers. Footnote Pages are an easy way for this audience to interact with each other and learn things they would not otherwise know about deceased friends and family.”

Beyond profiling people, Footnote pages can also be used to document and discuss historical events or places including: the Vietnam War, the Assassination of JFK and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

-more-

Unlike other social networking sites, Footnote.com provides content that enables users to tell and share stories from the past. Through its partnership with the National Archives, Footnote.com has digitized over 43 million documents including historical newspapers, military records, photos and more.

Footnote.com adds about 2 million new records to the site every month.

Visit Footnote.com to learn more about Footnote Pages and get a new perspective on the lives of your own friends and family who have passed away.

About Footnote.com
Footnote.com is a history website where real history might just surprise you. Footnote.com features millions of searchable original documents, providing users with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

About TechCrunch50
Founded in 2007 by leading technology blog TechCrunch and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, the TechCrunch50 conference provides a platform for early-stage, and frequently unfunded, companies to launch for the first time to the technology industry’s most influential venture capitalists, corporations, angel investors, fellow entrepreneurs, and the international media. Companies are selected to participate exclusively on merit. TechCrunch50 is supported by corporate sponsors Google, Microsoft, MySpace, and Yahoo!, as well as venture capital firms including Sequoia Capital http://www.sequoiacap.com, Mayfield Fund http://www.mayfield.com, Clearstone Venture Partners http://www.clearstone.com, Charles River Ventures http://www.crv.com, Founders Fund and Fenwick & West http://www.fenwick.com."

What's up with Rootsweb and Ancestry?

For anyone not in the know, the USGenWeb Project is hosted at Rootsweb. A few years back, Ancestry (now The Generations Network) was nice enough to donate all of the server space for the project. This has been the case for years and Ancestry has received pretty much nothing in return.

In the old days, Rootsweb used to ask for private donations and I used to be a donor. I was a volunteer for a few counties in Virginia so I felt obligated to provide some financial support, around $50 per year. When Ancestry stepped in, it was a big sigh of relief because Rootsweb no longer needed money out of our pockets.

The relationship between Rootsweb and Ancestry became more intertwined over the years. Rootsweb became known as “an Ancestry.com community.” Rootsweb became a marketable brand for Ancestry.

A few months ago, Ancestry sprung a surprise on the volunteers at Rootsweb and the USGenWeb Project. Ancestry was going to put a banner at the top of every page hosted on Rootsweb, an advertisement for their company. A large number of Rootsweb volunteers went crazy, furious that Ancestry had the audacity to turn their genealogy project into a profit center. The USGenWeb Project always stated its mission as being “non-commercial and fully committed to free genealogy access for everyone.” These principles seemed to clash...or did they?

I currently volunteer for two counties in Virginia. I have honestly neglected the sites for awhile because I am tired of all the controversy that has been brewing. Volunteers are moving their sites off Ancestry's servers so a lot of the old links do not work anymore. How does that help freely spread genealogy when you cannot find it? This is a huge mess and I am honestly getting tired of being a part of it. I think I am going to probably give up my two sites but I have not decided yet.

Through all of this I have not moved my sites nor would I in the future, if I keep them. The Ancestry banner is quite small, very similar to the Blogger banner you see at the very top of this page. Google owns Blogger. Blogger gives free web space for people to host their blog. It is therefore their right to get at least a small ad out of it. The ads are unobtrusive and most people do not pay any attention to them. I do not see what all the fuss is about.

I am getting a little off track but the point is that the USGenWeb project is at risk of falling apart, simply over a one-half inch banner at the top of every page. The banner says “Hosted at Rootsweb...an Ancestry.com Community.” It does not sell products or blatantly push a subscription service. It is a token gesture to give Ancestry more exposure in a tough market. If you look at Google trends, genealogy searches are falling off more each year. You cannot fault Ancestry for trying to expand their market reach in these trying times.

I would estimate that Ancestry spends tens of thousands of dollars per year to pay for all of the server space and bandwidth that Rootsweb has enjoyed for years. Instead of understanding that someone has to pay for all that space, people get all upset and scream that genealogy should be free for everyone. The last time I checked, it still was free. Ancestry is not directly selling anything with the banner and no subscription is required. I doubt they even get a large amount of traffic off the banners. People will become blind to them in a short mount of time. I wish some of the volunteers at the USGenWeb Project would stop looking a gift horse in the mouth and be happy that they have the support of a large, financial backer.

In closing, let me say that I appreciate the volunteers at Rootsweb and the USGenWeb Project. I also realize that lots of volunteers are fine with Ancestry's banners and that they are grateful for the support. The problem is that they, like myself, are passive about the conversion and are not raising a lot of eyebrows.

The controversy just does not make sense to me. It would be like my softball team going out and finding a sponsor to buy our uniforms and telling them that we will not print their name on our shirts. That is absurd. You always give credit to your sponsors. Why would that courtesy not apply to genealogy and Ancestry's hosting of Rootsweb? The idea behind sponsorship is exposure and that is what Ancestry wants and rightful deserves.

Get paid for your genealogy research? (part II)

Google is not the only form of advertising revenue. You can pitch products or sign up as an affiliate with Amazon or eBay but you have to get a lot of traffic to your site to make any money. You do not get paid for viewers clicking on their ads; people actually have to buy something for you to get commission. You might get one commission off of a thousand clicks on their ad. In short, you might as well forget it. Genealogy is not that popular in the big picture and it is losing momentum as a hobby. Fewer people search for genealogy sites each month - check the Google trends if you do not believe me.

The biggest problem with a genealogy web site is that genealogy hobbyists hate advertising! People think that all genealogy should be free for everyone and that making money off genealogy is evil! Rootsweb is in turmoil right now because Ancestry is adding their banners to all sites hosted on Rootsweb. Forget that Ancestry has given them free server space for years; Ancestry is now evil for wanting a little something in return. People focus too much on keeping genealogy “free.” If no one got paid for their work, there would be no genealogy books, microfilm or records. Even the county clerk gets paid to record the deeds and wills.

I am getting a little off track here but look at the big picture. Even if you get $100 per hour or $5.00 per click, you have to pay taxes and insurance. By the time you pay Uncle Sam and Blue Cross, what will you have left to eat? What about gas? How are you going to pay for $5.00 per gallon gasoline when you are driving to and from all of those courthouses and libraries? Don't forget about the kids needing braces, your adjustable rate mortgage, your car note and that momma needs a new pair of shoes.

Anyway you slice it, unless you are the CEO of the Generations Network or you invented DNA testing for genealogy purposes, you are probably out of luck. If anyone knows how to make money in genealogy, please let me know. I have been trying for years and just cannot figure it out. I love this hobby and would like to do it fulltime. I doubt I will quit my day job anytime soon, unless you can give me the answer. I am waiting for your response…

Get paid for your genealogy research?

I can tell you from experience that you are probably not going to get rich with genealogy. I doubt that it is really even possible to make a living with genealogy. I can think of a few ways to make money but I doubt that any of them would produce more than $25,000 per year.

You can perform research for clients but that is a lot of work for a relatively small amount of money. A certified or well-educated researcher could charge $100 per hour but you will get few clients. You could charge $10 per hour, and get more clients, but is your time worth that little? I tried $12.50 per hour for a long time, doing it for side money. I made a few thousand dollars per year but the headache was not worth the hassle. I pretty much gave up on making money as a researcher.

You could also try to rent your services as an advisor to other researchers, ones from out of town that want to use your local library - the one you know by heart. They may need to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time and your expertise can help them achieve that level of efficiency. I did this once, and made $100 for only a few hours, but the opportunities are few and far between. Most researchers like to find things on their own – that is half of the fun.

You could also trying public speaking but how many times a month does someone need a genealogy speaker? You are not going to make a killing at Shady Acres and the Knights of Columbus.

Another way to make money is to write articles for magazines or other publications, maybe even write a book. It is difficult to get published and you generally do not get paid much, if anything. The market is mostly flooded with how-to books so the odds of getting one published is likely slim as well.

Unless you want to live off prestige, you will probably starve as a genealogy writer. Don’t even think about making money off your own family history. There are few people really interested in the Urlacher family of Sunflower, Kansas. You will probably lose money when you pay to have the book printed.

The Internet was a good way to make money – a few years ago. Around 2005 you could have set up a genealogy site with some Google ads and made a killing off the clicks. However…Google changed the game in 2006-2007 with their Adsense program. Instead of getting paid $5.00 each time someone click an ad, you started getting $0.05. They decided to let advertisers choose how much money to pay for clicks on non-Google sites, what they call the content network. This means that a click on Google gets them $5.00 but a click on your site only nets you $0.05. People that were making thousands of dollars on ads a few years ago are now making less than $100.

To be continued...