Thursday, December 29, 2011

AGES-Online

                  AGES-Online
      Advanced Genealogical Exploration Service
      A family tree building internet site
      They currently have 2 packages and are working on a 3rd that says is coming soon.
      Their economy package is $39.95 and their standard package is $59.95. 
      They do offer a 30 day free trail.  You do not have to give a credit card for the free trial, which is a nice change.  I signed up for the free trial and this is what I have found so far.  You are able to upload GEDCOM files, print family group sheets, print outline decendant reports, print descendant genealogical resiter report, print marriage report, and print a parentage report. 
      They have a family statistics button.  When you click on it, it will give you
      Total number of individuals
      Total number of unquie surnames
      The average lifespan
      Youngest deceased
      Oldest deceased
      Earliest birth date
      Latest birth date
      Total number of marriages
      Earliest marriage date
      Latest marriage date
      You can add and edit family stories
      And you can share with family and friends.
      I am stil checking out the program.  Is there anyone there that already uses this and what are your opinions?

Thursday, December 15, 2011

A 6 Week Break

Classes are done for the term. I really surprised myself with the number of A's I received. I am looking forward to my next term. I will be taking Anthropology, NY state history, and the history of the Civil War. I can't wait to dive right in. It will be really exciting for me.  I have already started reading the book for the Civil War class which is "Battle Cry of Freedom."  I have a feeling there will be a lot of writing among all 5 of my classes.  But I will work my butt off and get it done.  I am also taking biology and American Lit.  Which is one of the reasons I decided to get a head start on my reading.  It will be fun. 

I went pulled out all my files, notebooks, binders and such.  I want to go through them, organize them and hope that will help me work more on this blog since I have seen to have gotten off on a detour.  I want to focus more.  But I would really like to see more input from followers.  I am still new at the blog thing and I am trying my best.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

GenealogyFreelancers.com

As I continue to work on this project I do research and come across many different books, websites, and information. Maybe I should have a weekly post dedicated just to the fun things I have come across while researching. 

While researching how to find a professional genealogist I came across and interesting site called GenealogyFreelancers.com  The site is for genealogist looking to help others with their projects and for researchers looking for help. 

Researchers can post projects that they need help with.
Genealogist looking to help others can browse posted projects and bid on them. 

There are 3 different membership levels for seekers
Free- its free to post a project and to find a specialist.
$5.00 - for a refundable $5.00 fee they put an icon in the title of your project to draw attention to your project.
$15.00 - the pull out all the stops to get a specialist for you project.  They notify matching specialist on their site immediatly as well as put your project on the Genealogy Freelancers RSS feed and via twitter to get your project out to hundered of specialist.

There are 3 different membership levels for researchers.
Free - gives you a chance to check out the site, play with the features, browse open projects and even bid on up to 10 a month.  If you bid on a project and get hired they do charge a 6% commision.
Silver - If you find that you are bidding on more than 10 projects a month and getting more jobs you could upgrade to their silver membership for $8 a month.  Your commision paid to the site is then only 3%.  They are limited to bidding on 20 projects a month.
Gold - This membership is $15 a month.  With this membership there are no commision fees, you only pay the $15 a month the money you make is totally yours.  There is not bid limit for gold members bid on all jobs you wish.

So if you get a chance check them out you might like them.  Their site is not flashy but tells you want you need to know.  If you take the time to check them out please leave me a comment telling me your thoughts on the site.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

a review of some website

If you Google "Genealogy Professional" you will get 13,200,000 hits in 20 seconds.  That is a lot of hits!!!  Here are the first 10 that pop up……….

#10 - Genealogical.com - a sales website that sells genealogy related items.  They have books, CD's and other items.  You can browse their catalog.  The page says they have access to over 25 million records and over 2,000 genealogy books.  I did not see any where on the site where you could hire a professional genealogist.  They do offer a book called "Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers & Librarians."  The book is $59.95 on their site. http://www.genealogical.com

#9 - Mygenealogist.com - a website were you can hire someone to help you with your research.  They are based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.  They say they have traveled to other countries to help their clients solve their genealogical problems.  They charge $50 a half hour and $60 an hour. http://www.mygenealogist.com/

#8 - Cyndislist.com - a wonderful genealogy website all on its own, has a section dedicated to genealogy professionals.  They have links to becoming a professional, accreditation, general resources, hiring a professional and so on.  http://www.cyndislist.com/Professionals/

#7 - Progenealogist.com - Owned and operated by Ancestry.com they have people whose job it is to help you with your research.  Some of the services they offer are ancestry research, international ancestry research, family history book creation & publication, probate and missing heir research, Salt Lake trip consultation, & records search.  Depending on the service you request the price ranges from $75 to $90 plus additional fees for phone calls, photocopies, postage, etc.  Ancestry.com is well known for their access to millions of historical records and if you are looking to go with a well known company this would probably be the one.  http://www.progenealogists.com/

#6 - Expertgenealogy.com - The site lists independent companies & individuals who are willing to help you with your genealogy research and genealogy products.  This site is full of directories for many different companies.  They are listings for free resources.  I do feel that the site is full of links upon links.  It seems to be slightly difficult to navigate.  Feel free to check it out and decide for yourself.  http://expertgenealogy.com/

#5 - apgen.org - The Association of Professional Genealogist.  On this site you can find specialist in all sorts of areas.  Such areas as adoption, genetics, heirs, and American Indians.  They also have specialist that help professional genealogist create a business.   If you are interested in becoming a professional genealogist they can help with that as well.  http://www.apgen.org/index.html

#4 - Genealogypro.com - They offer services in finding professional genealogist, adoption & missing person specialist, translators, military researcher, historical researcher, heir & estate specialists, and general genealogy services.  This is again a directory of companies and services.  This site is again links that lead you to links of more sites.  Not my personal favorite type of site. http://genealogypro.com/

#3 - Legacy-tree.com - Another company located near Salt Lake City, Utah.  They state that they genealogist that can help you with U.S. research, the British Isles, Germany, Canada, Italy and more.  They say that their genealogist all have university degrees in genealogy and family research.   Knowing that there is an extremely limited number of schools that offer such a degree means more than likely they have all gone to BYU.  There rates include original research, documents, full report and records list, family genealogy charts, presentation binder, & private family web page.  20 hours of research is $1250 for 1-2 surname lines.  40 hours of research is $2500 with 1-4 surname lines, & 80 hours of research is $5000 for 2-6 surname lines.  Pretty price but it depends on how serious you are and if you are willing to spend it. http://www.legacy-tree.com/index.html

#2 - Heirlines.com - This company's site says they have been around for over 40 years.  This company is also located in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Founded by a James W. Petty, who states he is a lifetime career genealogist.  They have their services packaged and their packages have names like gold ($2800), silver ($1500), platinum ($7800), and bronze($800).   http://www.heirlines.com/

#1 - Ancestry.com - A well known genealogy research site.  They have a link at the top of their page that says hire an expert.  This will take you to #7 Progenealogist.com.  This site is great for anyone who wishes to research on their own.  For either a monthly or yearly fee you can access over 7 billion records from so many different countries.  You can up load your tree or build along the way adding the records to the person as a source.  Other users also share their trees and you can find long lost relatives.  A great site.  A monthly subscription to U.S. records is $22.95 and a monthly subscription World records is $34.95.  If you want to try and do some of the research on your own this is probably your cheapest option. http://www.ancestry.com/