Genealogy Lesson 1 - Introduction

I want to welcome you to this series of genealogy lessons.  I am honored that you are taking the time to read my thoughts and to consider my advice.  Genealogy can be a life-changing adventure where you meet interesting people and travel to places that you never expected.

Some folks devote hours each day to scouring old records while others take a more casual approach. Either way is completely acceptable, the only requirement is that you have fun! Most of your ancestors are dead...they are not going anywhere...so you have plenty of time to find them!

There is no rush with genealogy...so pace yourself. Do only what you can, when you can, knowing that you may pick it up again at a later time.  I go weeks sometimes without looking at anything family-related and then I get back to business like I never missed a beat!  Genealogy is a great, low-maintenance hobby that I hope you will enjoy as much as I do.

So what sparked your interested in genealogy?  I never knew either of my grandfathers so genealogy was a way for me to "meet" them.  I also wanted to find old family photographs.  These were my motivating factors in getting started...what are yours? 

You should use your motivating factors to set a few goals, like finding old photos.  Everything you do in this hobby should thereafter revolve around meeting those goals.  You may not know how to reach them yet but stay focused and you will learn how to achieve those milestones in time. 

Genealogy is like a network of roads.  No matter where you go, there are always lots of paths to take and decisions to make.  Your time is limited so you must only follow the roads that take you where you want to go.  I could get to California from Virginia, via Florida, but that would not make sense.  This analogy might seem confusing now but you will understand what I mean later.

The next lesson you get from me will contain your first "real" lesson.  Today was more of an introduction and to point out that genealogy is, above all else, supposed to be fun.  Take your time, enjoy yourself and let's have a good time with this!

New Facebook fan page for USA Family Tree/Virginia Family Tree

I wanted to let everyone know that I have a "fan page" at Facebook now.  It is titled "USA Family Tree" after my free, genealogy lessons by email.  If you want to become a fan/friend, you can follow the link below...

USA Family Tree at Facebook

Working on USA Family Tree free lessons and Facebook fan page

I have been working on my free genealogy lesson site, USA Family Tree, for the past week or two.  I have spent several hours every night trying to refine the lessons and draw in more subscribers.  I am hit the 1,500 subscriber mark the other night.  I am not exactly setting the genealogy world on fire but that is not too shabby!  I am also thinking about writing a paper for the 2011 National Genealogical Society conference in North Charleston, South Carolina.  Maybe I will get selected to speak down there...we will have to wait and see.  Have any of you do that before, submit a genealogy paper for a conference?  If so, any suggestions?

For the past few weeks, with the holidays and the snow that we had, I have been unable to get down to the state archives.  I am hoping to go there this Saturday since I have not been in such a long time.  (A long time for me is more than a month or two).  I am fortuate to live pretty close to the archives, a luxury I know that many of you do not have.

I also created a Facebook fan page for my genealogy lesson site.  You can check it out here:  USA Family Tree's Facebook Fan Page.  I currently have 184 fans...not too bad for only a few days.

It bother me a little...I cannot help but feel that I am neglecting this blog!  I honestly have not had anything good to add concerning Virginia genealogy so I don't want to waste your time, just for the sake of creating blog posts.  I did also start a new blog associated with my free genealogy lessons, you can see it here.  I have written some good posts there recently, about general genealogical topics.  I really do not like having two blogs but the readers of that one are not so Virginia-oriented.

Well, maybe I will come across something good to share when I go to the archives on Saturday.  If I do, I will let you all know.

Adding more lessons to my free genealogy lesson series

Thought I would let you guys know that I am starting to add a few new lessons to my free genealogy lessons by email, through my other website - USA Family Tree.  Nothing revolutionary but a couple new lessons none-the-less. 

To give you an idea of my success so far, I have 1,130 people signed up for the lessons as of 3:06PM today!  I imagne that most people find them helpful as 92.1% of the people who have signed up, never unsubscribed.  That is pretty good for any email list as usually people lose interest at some point.  I really do not know why the 7.9% unsubscribed as I never had any formal complaints.  I think one person said the lessons were too easy but they cancelled before the lessons even got started...you have to crawl before you can walk.

Anyway, I just wanted to let any subscribers know that new stuff is coming.  If you have not subscribed, you can do so at any time by visiting USA Family Tree.  It is totally free and you never know, you just might learn something.

2009 FGS Conference in Little Rock, thinking about going...or not!

I have been giving a lot of thought about going to the FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies) conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. The event is being held at the Little Rock Statehouse Convention Center, September 2-5, 2009. I am on the fence about going for several reasons.

From what I can tell, it would be almost the same price for me to go as an observer as it would for me to rent a booth at the trade show. I could set up a 10' x 10' booth and promote my free, genealogy lesson site, USA Family Tree. There are however a few downsides to doing that...

1. There are a lot of "hidden" charges, such as paying for electricity and Internet service in the booth. If I were going to go, I would want a computer set up in the booth for people to sign up on the spot. That would cost me another $200 or so.
2. If I get a booth, I would not have time to hear any of the speeches or mingle with anyone. (I would hate to miss one of the Elizabeth Shown Mills presentations!) My wife would probably go if I asked (to work the booth) but she would make the trip more expensive by going and she would not want to leave our children for that long.
   
3. I would have to get some booth props made, signage, fliers, etc. That would set me back another $500 or more.

Another big expense for the trip would be travel and lodging. To drive would cost me about $300. To take the train would be about $400. Those are my only two options because a plane would not accommodate my booth props, nor do I like to fly anyway.

As for driving or riding the rails, it is about a two-day trip to Arkansas from Virginia...as best as I can tell. It is something like 16 hours by car. With that in mind, I would have to take off at least a week from work, giving up a future trip to Disney World!!! Also, the hotel will run about $160 per night, including parking.

When taken all together, the trip would cost me about $1,200-$1,500...not including meals or items that I purchase along the way. It would also suck down a week of vacation and put a couple thousand miles on my car! I would really like to go but that is a lot of money!

Let's break it down in the business sense. Exposure is priceless...I get that. My free, genealogy lessons are obviously designed to make money someday so the exposure would be great! I am mostly using these lessons to get my name out there, to become better known in the genealogy world. Who knows, I might come out with something down the road to sell and can use that site to gain credibility in the industry.

I am going to let you in on a secret...some of the back-workings of my genealogy "business"...

I currently run ads at Facebook, the social networking site, to drive traffic to my free lessons site. The last time I checked, it cost me about $0.18 for each person they sent to my site. Of those people, about 33% would sign-up for my lessons. It therefore costs me $0.54 for each person that actually signs up for my lessons. I have almost 800 people signed-up as of tonight...so it theoretically cost me $432.00 to get them signed-up. If I took the $1,200 from the convention, I could essentially buy 2,222 new subscribers through advertising with Facebook. (That would be 2,778 if it cost me $1,500 for the trip!)

The big question is...is my money better served to buy advertising and get 2,222 new subscribers or...is my money better served to go to Arkansas and mingle? There are a lot of people I would love to meet at the convention but I do not know if I can do that while tied to a booth. However, to not rent the booth would only save me, maybe $200. That is too small of a difference to pass the booth up...I would have to get a booth. However, I can almost promise your that I will not get 2,222 subscribers from the booth.

What would you do? I have until July 1st to make my mind up. I am leaning on not going but I can be swayed! There will be other conferences in the future so not going now does not count me out later.

Genealogy Lessons

My genealogy lesson have taken off. I should cross the 700-subscriber mark this weekend! If you are not signed up, you should give it a try. I am only getting back positive feedback so far!

http://www.usafamilytree.com

Crazy week, lots going on...

It has been a crazy week for me. My free, genealogy lesson site has been taking off - USA Family Tree. I just passed the 600 subscriber mark. My Facebook and Twitter followers are growing as well. I have been swamped at work on top of all this.

I went out and bought an iPod Touch, deciding if I should break down and eventually get an iPhone. I am really leaning towards it now! I have not played around with the Touch for genealogy purposes yet but I have used it for Internet and email, with great results. If you have been on the fence about getting one, I would go for it!

I've got several things in the works at the moment. I am thinking about adding some special pages to my genealogy lesson site, for members only - but still free. I am also thinking about moving this blog from Blogger to Wordpress...any thoughts on that? Wordpress has a lot more features and I have a lot more control over the look and feel of the site.

There are so many thoughts swimming around in my head that I can barely function. On top of that, we are getting ready to move into our new house! The next month will be crazy for me!

Free Genealogy Lesson Milestone

I hit a milestone today with my free genealogy lessons - 100+ subscribers. That may not sound like a lot but the site has only been up for 19 days! Do the math, that is roughly five sign-ups per day. I would like to see that number increase dramatically but time will tell.

If you have not sign-up yet, all you have to do is visit my other site - USA Family Tree. Follow the on-screen instructions and you will start getting the lessons right away. And yes, they really are free.