Genealogy at Heartland Helpline

To Purchase Materials Or Not ~ Good Question!

In every hobby, there's ways to make a bundle of money. Most of the time, it is cost of materials needed to maintain the hobby. But where do we draw the line when it appears somebody is gouging us out of money?

Recently, I was looking at a company advertisement who was selling CDs of genealogy information. To begin with, their prices weren't exactly cheap. But what caught my attention is one particular CD that has three states of marriage indices, one of the states has most of their information already online ~ and for free!

While looking up recently posted queries, I came across a posting wherein the person was selling a family Bible they purchased at a garage sale for a "minimum" of $200. The person said they were not related to this particular family. Fortunately, somebody responded to this person in an attempt to shame the individual for trying to take advantage of whomever the descendants might be.

How about internet sites that have databases up and the monthly fee is at least $10? You sign up for the trial membership and find absolutely nothing, or information the site has gathered from elsewhere.

Now I am the first to admit I have foolishly spent money that instead I could have used for more important and related documents. So some lessons have been learned by me (I hope!). So how do you protect yourself from throwing money away?

The first thing is this ancestor you're researching, are they a direct ancestor? Have you scoured through some internet databases such as RootsWeb, Ancestry.com, GenForum, and/or FamilyHistory.com? Have you visited the USGenWeb sites for information? How about those of you researching in other countries? I cannot answer questions about that except I know it can be frustrating! I suppose you just need to hope like crazy you have a relative in that particular country who would be willing to help you! Have you tried the local genealogy society or the society located in the area you are researching?

Some resource locations/sites are worth having memberships in. I highly recommend having membership in the society where your family spent a great deal of time. Unashamedly, I also recommend Ancestry.com. RootsWeb uses a very unabashed way of encouraging donations too. However, RootsWeb seems to have their fingers in all kinds of pies!

How about printed materials? It is indeed handy to have a couple of publications on hand such as marriage indices, birth records, cemetery listings, census records, etc. Why? Well, if you let folks know you have these kinds of records on hand, you might be able to help somebody break down their brickwall. In turn, that same person or somebody else, might be able to help you break down yours.

A common decency is sometimes forgotten in the hobby of genealogy. Freely share the information you have gathered. Now on the other hand, I can understand if you paid a good sum of money to obtain a document and you are a bit protective of the document. For example, I paid $10 for a copy of a naturalization paper on my great-grandfather. It was worth it to me as the document did answer a few more questions for us. I also sent copies of the document to two other family members that are working on that particular family line. However, if I did not have a membership with Ancestry.com and receive their emailed newsletter, I would not have known about the naturalization database to find the document. See what I mean?

Receiving a genealogy magazine is a good expenditure. But beware of the tons of advertisements offering you everything from blank family group sheets, to CDs, to books, to family charts. Just as an "FYI" you can get a copy of the family group sheets from Ancestry.com "free". Just fire up your printer and start printing away or print one off the printer and go use a photocopy machine.

Now what about the genealogy software. I personally have two kinds: FamilyTree Maker and Generations Grand Suite 8. I like the latter one better because it's not just the genealogy software program. Generations also includes two other programs and works with whatever word processor you have on your computer system. But again, Generations is not as cheap as FamilyTree Maker either.

DaraSue's Tip: Decide how important that document, database, software, or magazine is cost-wise and ancestral-wise before purchasing. Thoroughly check the "free" stuff first before delving into your savings.

Links: Ancestry.com
GenForum
RootsWeb
FamilyHistory.com