First, let me say that I hate reality television for the most part. I really could care less what drama is going on in the lives of a celebrity or someone looking for love by whoring it up with a large pool of potential mates that they never get to know. I don't have the patience for game shows that are so contrived that half the program is the "suspense" of waiting for the host to tell the contestant whether or not they answered a simple question correctly. There are two exceptions however. One is the "Amazing Race", which I love because I'd love to travel and they go to interesting places and learn fun new things. The other is "Who Do You Think You Are", where they take celebrities and follow their roots to find something that they didn't know about their family. It's genealogical crack. And it's on Prime Time! I have watched it and learned quite a bit. Sometimes how they get through to a new relative helps me get past my own brick wall. While on Ancestry's Facebook page, someone mentioned that there was a similar show on BYUTV for regular folk and that PBS also had a show coming out. I found myself wondering what other programs about genealogy were available. Turns out quite a few. Here are some that I found, what they're about and where you can buy/watch them.
Celebrity Themed
"Who Do You Think You Are?"- There is an American and British version of this show. This is actually a British import, having already eight seasons. The American version is currently airing their third on NBC, Fridays. The concept is simple: take a celebrity, research their history. The shows both have good tips and links on their websites and I recommend watching both if you can. Currently the American version has their first season for sale; the British has their seven completed seasons out. I was able to find both on Amazon, but they were also available on the respective websites of each version as well. They also sell companion books that go into more detail for each season. I haven't looked into those, but some people on Ancestry's facebook page have said it's well worth a look.
"Finding Your Roots" is a new one coming out middle of March 2012 on PBS. On this show, two celebrities from seemingly disparate backgrounds are connected together through their family histories. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the producer, writer and presenter and this is just his latest genealogy show. "African American Lives" and "African American Lives 2" were his first forays into televised genealogy with notable African Americans as the guests. Dealing with the specific trials of tracing African American heritage, it is a compelling story at times. The best part is the many resources linked on the respective websites. That alone is well worth the look. "Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates Jr." was his series in 2010 for PBS. It also showed celebrities like the Who Do You Think You Are concept taking 12 celebrities on the journey in four episodes. These are already on DVD and you can find them in the PBS shop. There are also companion books for these programs.
"Family Historian" is a long running New York genealogical program that gave many tips on searching out family history. This website has the episodes for sale, but be warned, both the show and the website are decidedly low production. (There is music playing on the website that will drive you batty- mute your speakers)
"Where are shows about non-celebrities like me????"
Not a day goes by that someone isn't on a forum asking why celebrities get to have their genealogy researched for them while ordinary people have to work hard and do it themselves. Well, fear not! You too can find help while getting your 15 minutes of televised fame! "Generations Project on BYUTV" is one that deals with "everyday" people. BYUTV is a cable channel provided by Brigham Young University and their sponsor the LDS Church. There are currently 36 episodes on their website for viewing. Want to be on tv? Then this is your option! If you live in the United States or Canada, you can tell them your story and may be chosen to be on their program.
"Ancestors In the Attic" is a Canadian series in it's fourth season. This program also deals with "ordinary" folk. They take Canadians and travel through Canada and the world to solve their familial mysteries. I've not found a place to purchase the series, but they are viewable on their website. One other is "Genealogy Roadshow", which is an Irish program in the vein of Antiques Roadshow. They take ordinary people with rumors and stories and try to find the truth behind them. Actually very interesting.
Other viewing options
These don't deal with a specific history as much as give you ideas where/how to search. "Genealogy Quest Series" by the Larimer County Genealogical Society (Colorado) is an interesting series using experts to give tips and tricks on how to research. "Ancestors" by KBYU has two seasons (1997 & 2000) available for purchase. This one has a website full of links and tips, so even if you don't purchase the DVDs, you should check it out. "Genealogy Gems TV" has a website, a facebook page, iTunes podcast and a Youtube channel all dedicated to teaching you new things about genealogy. I like this one because it's very active and truly helpful. Ancestry also has it's own Youtube channel for short presentations from their resident genealogy experts on how to use the site as well as get around brick walls. In fact, there are quite a few channels and individual episodes available on Youtube if you just search "genealogy".
Many of the programs' sites have online viewing options. Remember, however, that international copyright laws may prohibit your country from viewing them online. Some I could even find a link to buy the DVD collection. I looked at Hulu.com by simply searching "genealogy" and came up with many clips and episodes from several different shows including History Detectives and Who Do You Think You Are. So if you have the will, you can find some interesting programs that may give you a new avenue for your own search.
And if you simply must watch Reality TV, isn't it better to have an option that is fun and informative?
-Ana
Showing posts with label professional. Show all posts
Showing posts with label professional. Show all posts
09 March 2012
16 December 2011
How to Use Someone Else's Research
As you start to gather information on your family, you'll find many avenues to follow. While records like birth, death and marriage certificates, population censuses and church records will give you some degree of accuracy, there are those other sources:
Other Family Members
Your great aunt has been doing research on the family tree for 40 years; or maybe a cousin is compiling a book listing your family back to Moses. The thing is, they may have loads of time put in and proof, but it may all be wrong. When I told my family I was interested in their information, my aunt claimed to have loads. On a computer. In her garage. Somewhere. The best I was able to get from her was an unsourced family GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunication file) taking us to A.D. 1430 on one side and A.D. 1670 on another. Which is fantastic, but without sources, I'm forced to ask where she got the information. How does she KNOW those are our relatives? What proof does she have that these people existed? Oh right, it's on her old computer. In her garage. Somewhere. My Great Uncle gave me another GEDCOM from his 30 years of research with some sources, but some leaps of faith it seems too. He had relatives listed twice, sometimes with different parents. How had he not noticed that? My cousin had proof of our Native American line..... as long as our great great grandmother's father was born after she died..... oops.
Not that there isn't information to be had here, but it's not Gospel. I'm pretty sure they know the names of their cousins, neices and nephews. They may know some distant relatives that lived in or around their lifetime. However, without outside sourcing to back it up, linking yourself to these trees should be done with caution. They are excellent places to start, but you will have to do some work to clean them up. I have one tree I have for all my factual (official records) sources that only get a relative added to it if I can prove it. That's my end result tree. But I have these other trees that I'm sure are full of errors. I comb through each generation, person by person. Sometimes I've proven the link, sometimes I've had to remove a person or two (or ten). But often I use these trees just as a way to jump start my research. My father spent years calling various court houses and historical societies in Texas looking for any record of his grandmother's birth. After I found a Census showing her birthplace as Missouri, we were able to track her down to a little town called Texas, Missouri..... I don't think my dad's stopped laughing about that yet.
Online Family Trees
We live in a glorious age when you don't have to travel the world and spend years pawing through dusty file cabinets to find a possible match to your ancestor. Nor spend your life calling government, church and historical societies until you are broke financially and emotionally. When my father was working on the family tree, he'd spend vacations driving to other states to hopefully find one shred of evidence that his grandparents existed. I go online and within a month I have every U.S. Census they were in listing their birth places and children. He was jealous to say the least.
But along with all this plethora of digitised official documentation, there is also the online family trees. Just like the research your relatives have done, these may be well crafted, documented treasure troves. Or they are trash heaps of ineptitude. If anything can be learned from Ancestry.com's commericals, it's that most people want to be related to someone famous for something, a royal, or a unique individual that will be impressive to other people. It's not impossible to trace your family back to the beginning of time, it's just not probable. Prior to the 18th century, churches were your best source for family history. But the problem was that they had a great tendency to burn down. Royals keep great records, but they also tend to marry in close circles that the common man is unlikely to have broken into. So just like with your family's research, you can use what you find, but double check it. When you come to a conflict, keep an open mind and work both angles until you can prove one over the other. And remember, your relatives don't have to be special to the world to be special to you.
Vanity Genealogies
Now you've checked over all the data your family had. You've plucked carefully through online sources compiled by amateurs. Now, you've found the holy Grail.... a professionally documented genealogy. Uh....
Gustave Anjou, Orra E. Monnette, C. A. Hoppin, Horatio Gates Somersby, Charles H. Browning, John S. Wurts and Frederick A. Virkus are some well-known con-men who created hundreds of false genealogies. And there are more "genealogists" that if not intentionally lying, they were obscenely inefficient in their research. As long as someone was willing to pay a good fee (Anjou would receive $9,000 for his work), they would provide a coat of arms, royal lineage, famous relatives.... anything to please the client. These were even more insidious when they would actually include a real document with facts and then add their own corroborating document they had falsified to make a connection. People were fooled for years! So if you find a book of your family, check the author. Then check their sources. And keep your mind open.
Have you ever received an email from Nigeria saying you are the last relative of a dead businessman who's money amounts to the millions? It's easy to claim this money. All you do is send this lawyer a fee of a couple grand and he will be able to provide the documents to prove your legitimacy and release the money to you. Surprisingly, this isn't new. A hundred years ago, fraudsters used to put these in the paper asking for someone to come forward as the heir to a contested fortune that didn't exist. People would naturally reply hoping to make a quick buck. These con-men would then ask for a fee to provide documents and legal help, sometimes encouraging whole families to chip in to be part of a membership of "heirs" fighting for their estates. Con-artists don't change their game, they just use better tools. If you find mention of a lost family fortune in your searches, be ready to find out your family was bamboozled.
So in the end.....
Spend time on any message board, forum or Facebook page about genealogy and you will see people that have thousands of family names on their tree. They can trace themselves to Charlemagne or Pontius Pilate or Adam himself. Their great great grandmother was an Indian princess (more on that one in another post!). They are distant cousins to dozens of famous people.
These people may be right, but the probabilities aren't on their side. Most people will get stuck in the 1800's when censuses didn't list everyone, just the head of the household. Churches, hospitals, city halls, libraries all burn down and lose centuries of records that were only kept there. False records abound; if you're willing to pay for proof, there's someone willing to make it for you. Even people who've been looking for years may still be stuck on this side of the ocean simply because they can't find any record of their founding ancestor's arrival and thus can't find where they departed. Europe has been a hotbed of wars that span years, decades or centuries destroying entire towns and all that they recorded. I have photos of my grandfather in France during WWII standing next to the rubble that once was a church. I've thought many times about who's history was lost that day. If not properly stored, documents can simply deteriorate. Like Dr. Who. I'm a huge fan of the show. However, because the BBC didn't properly store the film from the first two seasons, most of the episodes are lost to us, never to be seen again. Imagine what we've lost from documentaries and photos made in the early days of film. Lost, lost, lost.
And people lie. A family member looking for a new start or running from something shameful may have changed their name. My maternal grandmother's family has Jewish roots that to this day the older generations won't talk about for fear of persecution. My paternal grandmother used to yell at my father when he was a child if he "acted like an Indian" when he played, because racism against Natives was so strong when she was growing up. It was a point of pride to her to be able to pass for White. It was common to claim the child of your unmarried underaged daughter as your own rather than face familial shame. A man could have two families. Adoption can muddy your waters, especially if the family couldn't afford to make it official. Every now and again I lie awake wondering about all the people in Witness Protection....... what hurdles lay in front of their descendants????
You don't need to find a famous person to have an interesting tree. It may seem exciting to find these bright shining stars in your family history, but genealogy isn't a road to travel while you point out the landmarks. It doesn't matter if you find something interesting to someone else. Your family may toil in the background of world history, but they lived and that is the important part. Your unique family history is a tapestry of interwoven lives; vibrant colour and story all it's own. It's a panoramic landscape full of beauty and character. While you admire the sky and count the stars, I'll admire the land and take care of the roots.
Other Family Members
Your great aunt has been doing research on the family tree for 40 years; or maybe a cousin is compiling a book listing your family back to Moses. The thing is, they may have loads of time put in and proof, but it may all be wrong. When I told my family I was interested in their information, my aunt claimed to have loads. On a computer. In her garage. Somewhere. The best I was able to get from her was an unsourced family GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunication file) taking us to A.D. 1430 on one side and A.D. 1670 on another. Which is fantastic, but without sources, I'm forced to ask where she got the information. How does she KNOW those are our relatives? What proof does she have that these people existed? Oh right, it's on her old computer. In her garage. Somewhere. My Great Uncle gave me another GEDCOM from his 30 years of research with some sources, but some leaps of faith it seems too. He had relatives listed twice, sometimes with different parents. How had he not noticed that? My cousin had proof of our Native American line..... as long as our great great grandmother's father was born after she died..... oops.
Not that there isn't information to be had here, but it's not Gospel. I'm pretty sure they know the names of their cousins, neices and nephews. They may know some distant relatives that lived in or around their lifetime. However, without outside sourcing to back it up, linking yourself to these trees should be done with caution. They are excellent places to start, but you will have to do some work to clean them up. I have one tree I have for all my factual (official records) sources that only get a relative added to it if I can prove it. That's my end result tree. But I have these other trees that I'm sure are full of errors. I comb through each generation, person by person. Sometimes I've proven the link, sometimes I've had to remove a person or two (or ten). But often I use these trees just as a way to jump start my research. My father spent years calling various court houses and historical societies in Texas looking for any record of his grandmother's birth. After I found a Census showing her birthplace as Missouri, we were able to track her down to a little town called Texas, Missouri..... I don't think my dad's stopped laughing about that yet.
Online Family Trees
We live in a glorious age when you don't have to travel the world and spend years pawing through dusty file cabinets to find a possible match to your ancestor. Nor spend your life calling government, church and historical societies until you are broke financially and emotionally. When my father was working on the family tree, he'd spend vacations driving to other states to hopefully find one shred of evidence that his grandparents existed. I go online and within a month I have every U.S. Census they were in listing their birth places and children. He was jealous to say the least.
But along with all this plethora of digitised official documentation, there is also the online family trees. Just like the research your relatives have done, these may be well crafted, documented treasure troves. Or they are trash heaps of ineptitude. If anything can be learned from Ancestry.com's commericals, it's that most people want to be related to someone famous for something, a royal, or a unique individual that will be impressive to other people. It's not impossible to trace your family back to the beginning of time, it's just not probable. Prior to the 18th century, churches were your best source for family history. But the problem was that they had a great tendency to burn down. Royals keep great records, but they also tend to marry in close circles that the common man is unlikely to have broken into. So just like with your family's research, you can use what you find, but double check it. When you come to a conflict, keep an open mind and work both angles until you can prove one over the other. And remember, your relatives don't have to be special to the world to be special to you.
Vanity Genealogies
Now you've checked over all the data your family had. You've plucked carefully through online sources compiled by amateurs. Now, you've found the holy Grail.... a professionally documented genealogy. Uh....
Gustave Anjou, Orra E. Monnette, C. A. Hoppin, Horatio Gates Somersby, Charles H. Browning, John S. Wurts and Frederick A. Virkus are some well-known con-men who created hundreds of false genealogies. And there are more "genealogists" that if not intentionally lying, they were obscenely inefficient in their research. As long as someone was willing to pay a good fee (Anjou would receive $9,000 for his work), they would provide a coat of arms, royal lineage, famous relatives.... anything to please the client. These were even more insidious when they would actually include a real document with facts and then add their own corroborating document they had falsified to make a connection. People were fooled for years! So if you find a book of your family, check the author. Then check their sources. And keep your mind open.
Have you ever received an email from Nigeria saying you are the last relative of a dead businessman who's money amounts to the millions? It's easy to claim this money. All you do is send this lawyer a fee of a couple grand and he will be able to provide the documents to prove your legitimacy and release the money to you. Surprisingly, this isn't new. A hundred years ago, fraudsters used to put these in the paper asking for someone to come forward as the heir to a contested fortune that didn't exist. People would naturally reply hoping to make a quick buck. These con-men would then ask for a fee to provide documents and legal help, sometimes encouraging whole families to chip in to be part of a membership of "heirs" fighting for their estates. Con-artists don't change their game, they just use better tools. If you find mention of a lost family fortune in your searches, be ready to find out your family was bamboozled.
So in the end.....
Spend time on any message board, forum or Facebook page about genealogy and you will see people that have thousands of family names on their tree. They can trace themselves to Charlemagne or Pontius Pilate or Adam himself. Their great great grandmother was an Indian princess (more on that one in another post!). They are distant cousins to dozens of famous people.
These people may be right, but the probabilities aren't on their side. Most people will get stuck in the 1800's when censuses didn't list everyone, just the head of the household. Churches, hospitals, city halls, libraries all burn down and lose centuries of records that were only kept there. False records abound; if you're willing to pay for proof, there's someone willing to make it for you. Even people who've been looking for years may still be stuck on this side of the ocean simply because they can't find any record of their founding ancestor's arrival and thus can't find where they departed. Europe has been a hotbed of wars that span years, decades or centuries destroying entire towns and all that they recorded. I have photos of my grandfather in France during WWII standing next to the rubble that once was a church. I've thought many times about who's history was lost that day. If not properly stored, documents can simply deteriorate. Like Dr. Who. I'm a huge fan of the show. However, because the BBC didn't properly store the film from the first two seasons, most of the episodes are lost to us, never to be seen again. Imagine what we've lost from documentaries and photos made in the early days of film. Lost, lost, lost.
And people lie. A family member looking for a new start or running from something shameful may have changed their name. My maternal grandmother's family has Jewish roots that to this day the older generations won't talk about for fear of persecution. My paternal grandmother used to yell at my father when he was a child if he "acted like an Indian" when he played, because racism against Natives was so strong when she was growing up. It was a point of pride to her to be able to pass for White. It was common to claim the child of your unmarried underaged daughter as your own rather than face familial shame. A man could have two families. Adoption can muddy your waters, especially if the family couldn't afford to make it official. Every now and again I lie awake wondering about all the people in Witness Protection....... what hurdles lay in front of their descendants????
You don't need to find a famous person to have an interesting tree. It may seem exciting to find these bright shining stars in your family history, but genealogy isn't a road to travel while you point out the landmarks. It doesn't matter if you find something interesting to someone else. Your family may toil in the background of world history, but they lived and that is the important part. Your unique family history is a tapestry of interwoven lives; vibrant colour and story all it's own. It's a panoramic landscape full of beauty and character. While you admire the sky and count the stars, I'll admire the land and take care of the roots.
-Ana
30 November 2011
When to Pay for Information
Now you've got a tree started and are working furiously trying to find any and all information about your ancestors. You start to surf the web and run into "introductory" offers to view information. Or you contemplate joining a Historical or Genealogical society. If you take on more than one source, the price of membership can climb steeply quite quickly. So what should you pay for? What can you find free? When should you pay someone else to help you?
First, I'd like to point out that the world is mostly capitalistic. You should expect nothing for free; you aren't entitled to be given anything. If you do have to pay for something it is to help them operate their business so that they can research, archive, and upload that precious information you have gone looking for. Please keep this in mind before you bemoan greedy fat cats and what you can and cannot get for free elsewhere.
With that said:
I'm a big fan of Ancestry.com. I use their site free at the moment, but paid for a year prior and plan to pay for them again later. I just have little time or money to be throwing around right now (like many of you) and had to cut one of my favorite hobbies to a minimum. They have two options, one for just United States information and one for "World" access. I say "World" because they don't have all countries available- it's mostly Europe and sketchy at that. They still have to find the records; then pay for the rights to reproduce them; then pay someone to transcribe them (or through their World Archives project, induce you to volunteer time to transcription). Around $30-40 to get you access, depending on if they are having a sale or something. Of course, it's less if you pay for a bulk year, but it's up to what you can safely budget. Should you pay? I think so. They've got loads to comb through like Censuses, Birth and Death records, Newspapers..... you could spend years on just what they have if you've got patience to do so. But you don't have to. They have a free membership that allows you to input your information and upload data from other sources. They do free search weekends and the like so you can get a taste of what they have to offer without paying (there's even a 14 day trial to start you out). Either way, this is a good site. Plus, it's super easy to save their sources to your tree. (If you don't pay, when you do get to access their sources for free, print them out or save them as you can't view them after the introductory event).
They've bought many of the sites that are out there like Rootsweb (free but .... ignored and a bit mishandled now). They also own Fold3 (used to be Footnotes). This one is all newspapers, military records and naturalisation documents. You have to pay for it and it's about $80 for a year. I've not bothered with this one yet as I've been able to find news articles elsewhere if I search, but have considered adding this one to my spending. I'm interested in a possible hits to the naturalisation records of my great grandmother, but there are a few to try and I've not got enough information to guarantee any are her. Should you pay? There are some documents here you can't get free elsewhere, so if you know what/who you are looking for, I'm sure it can help. If you're taking a blind plunge, it might not be worth $80 to come up empty handed.
Golly, so many sites I use free, Genforum, FamilySearch, Worldgenweb, Progenealogists, etc. Cindi's List is wonderful as the she has looked through a lot of the sites available and has categorised them for easy look up. So you can exhaust several of these before you have to go searching out a paying alternative. Many have some things free and then a paid member site. Should you pay? Not really sure you should. What you have to pay for on most sites is what you have to pay for on the bigger known sites, so why pay twice?
What about a historical society?
Well, this is an iffy one for me. There are several societies out there. They are National, Ethnic, County, or even family specific......... I can't imagine paying for all of them. Some offer free information, some make you pay a membership fee yearly. Some I feel are just making you pay so you can receive a monthly digest from them of "tips" you can find anywhere. So this one's up to you. I've not seen the need to pay for a society yet, but there are some that have documents you can't find elsewhere and they won't share without membership. If you join one, make sure it'll be worth it -if your family helped found Bumtown County, joining their historical society might be worth the effort. However, joining the Scottish Preservation society doesn't help you if your family is strictly Italian; no matter how cool the information is, it's not helpful.
Should I pay someone else to help me?
You can if you want. Here's the thing, there's lots of info that is free if you search hard enough for it. There are people out there who just love to look stuff up and if you post on a forum they read, they'll find that information for you for free. So why should you pay?
Bottom line, if you don't want to pay, don't. There's plenty of free options, but you will work harder for them. But hey, the search is the fun isn't it?
First, I'd like to point out that the world is mostly capitalistic. You should expect nothing for free; you aren't entitled to be given anything. If you do have to pay for something it is to help them operate their business so that they can research, archive, and upload that precious information you have gone looking for. Please keep this in mind before you bemoan greedy fat cats and what you can and cannot get for free elsewhere.
With that said:
I'm a big fan of Ancestry.com. I use their site free at the moment, but paid for a year prior and plan to pay for them again later. I just have little time or money to be throwing around right now (like many of you) and had to cut one of my favorite hobbies to a minimum. They have two options, one for just United States information and one for "World" access. I say "World" because they don't have all countries available- it's mostly Europe and sketchy at that. They still have to find the records; then pay for the rights to reproduce them; then pay someone to transcribe them (or through their World Archives project, induce you to volunteer time to transcription). Around $30-40 to get you access, depending on if they are having a sale or something. Of course, it's less if you pay for a bulk year, but it's up to what you can safely budget. Should you pay? I think so. They've got loads to comb through like Censuses, Birth and Death records, Newspapers..... you could spend years on just what they have if you've got patience to do so. But you don't have to. They have a free membership that allows you to input your information and upload data from other sources. They do free search weekends and the like so you can get a taste of what they have to offer without paying (there's even a 14 day trial to start you out). Either way, this is a good site. Plus, it's super easy to save their sources to your tree. (If you don't pay, when you do get to access their sources for free, print them out or save them as you can't view them after the introductory event).
They've bought many of the sites that are out there like Rootsweb (free but .... ignored and a bit mishandled now). They also own Fold3 (used to be Footnotes). This one is all newspapers, military records and naturalisation documents. You have to pay for it and it's about $80 for a year. I've not bothered with this one yet as I've been able to find news articles elsewhere if I search, but have considered adding this one to my spending. I'm interested in a possible hits to the naturalisation records of my great grandmother, but there are a few to try and I've not got enough information to guarantee any are her. Should you pay? There are some documents here you can't get free elsewhere, so if you know what/who you are looking for, I'm sure it can help. If you're taking a blind plunge, it might not be worth $80 to come up empty handed.
Golly, so many sites I use free, Genforum, FamilySearch, Worldgenweb, Progenealogists, etc. Cindi's List is wonderful as the she has looked through a lot of the sites available and has categorised them for easy look up. So you can exhaust several of these before you have to go searching out a paying alternative. Many have some things free and then a paid member site. Should you pay? Not really sure you should. What you have to pay for on most sites is what you have to pay for on the bigger known sites, so why pay twice?
What about a historical society?
Well, this is an iffy one for me. There are several societies out there. They are National, Ethnic, County, or even family specific......... I can't imagine paying for all of them. Some offer free information, some make you pay a membership fee yearly. Some I feel are just making you pay so you can receive a monthly digest from them of "tips" you can find anywhere. So this one's up to you. I've not seen the need to pay for a society yet, but there are some that have documents you can't find elsewhere and they won't share without membership. If you join one, make sure it'll be worth it -if your family helped found Bumtown County, joining their historical society might be worth the effort. However, joining the Scottish Preservation society doesn't help you if your family is strictly Italian; no matter how cool the information is, it's not helpful.
Should I pay someone else to help me?
You can if you want. Here's the thing, there's lots of info that is free if you search hard enough for it. There are people out there who just love to look stuff up and if you post on a forum they read, they'll find that information for you for free. So why should you pay?
- You don't have the time to research it yourself
- You've run into a dead end and need new eyes on the search
- The person in question is a member of a site or society that requires membership and is willing to gather this information for you for a fee
- They can locate/translate a document you can't
Bottom line, if you don't want to pay, don't. There's plenty of free options, but you will work harder for them. But hey, the search is the fun isn't it?
-Ana
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