If you are thinking of becoming a professional genealogist, you will benefit by following these simple steps to see if you have the necessary skill, experience, and expertise to offer your services to others for pay

A genealogist must be familiar with the various types of genealogical records available and know where to access them, as well as know how to analyze and interpret evidence.
Read the code of ethics of the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Board for Certification of Genealogists and make sure that these rules apply to you. Consider your experience. A genealogist must be familiar with the various types of genealogical records available and know where to
access them, as well as know how to analyze and interpret evidence.

Evaluate your writing skills. You must know how and where to access information and have good grammar and writing skills in order to communicate your findings to your clients.

It is beneficial to you should think of joining the Association of Professional Genealogists. This way you can educate yourself as you can take genealogy classes, attend seminars and workshops, and read genealogical magazines,
journals, and books offered by this society for professional genealogists as well as those aspiring to become genealogists. No matter how much you know there is always more to learn. It is a good idea to volunteer with a local
genealogical society or an online genealogy Web site to keep in touch with a network of fellow genealogists, which will help to further develop your skills.

List your goals. Think about what types of research interests you, the access you have to necessary resources, and the profitability of doing research as a business.

You cannot run a successful business without knowing about accounting, taxes, advertising, licenses, and time management. So, develop your business skills and learn to solve a wide variety of genealogical problems. If you are unsure about your qualifications, enlist the services of a professional genealogist to critique your work and offer guidance.

When you are ready, apply for certification or accreditation. The Board for Certification of Genealogists grants certification in six categories and the Family History Library offers accreditation in specific geographical areas.

Practice your research skills. Visit courthouses, libraries and archives to explore the records. Get as much experience as you can before working for others. Don’t stop researching your own family history. It is most likely the reason you fell in love with genealogy in the first place and will continue to provide inspiration and enjoyment.

Strive for the highest level of truth and accuracy in all phases of your work and act in the interest of your client.

Fimlier Geneany is the proprieter and delegate of a http://www.familygeneology.com family geneology, inc. which is a premier resource for geneology information. For questions or comments, go to: www.familygeneology.com

Most genealogists working in the US have learned what a valuable tool the US Census is. But the ins and outs of each census record are intricate. It seems like each decade something changed about the information included or the way it was recorded. This perception is quite often the case. The history of the US Census Records is important to understand when using it as a resource to trace your ancestors. This article features census searching tips and covers the history of the US Census from 1790 to 1810. Part two in this series covers US Census history from 1820 to 1880, including 1850, a watershed year in census history. The third and last article covers the history of the census from 1890 to the present.

Census Searching Tips

Try any and all spellings of first and last names, or use Soundex if possible. Some enumerators were quite “creative” in recording people’s names. Especially in earlier censuses, many people could not write or spell their own name for the enumerator. Recent immigrants might also have had thick accents. McCollum, for example, might be rendered McCullum, McCullom, MacCallum (its derivation), MacCollum, McColm, McCollin (that’s straight from the census record), etc. A fairly common name, Franklin has fourteen extant spelling variations that might appear (including two f’s, two n’s, ck for k, y for i, a silent e, and combinations of the four). My husband’s genealogy has the surname Faulkner spelled four different ways in four generations, and each of those men could have used any or all of those spellings during their lives, if they were literate. You get the idea.
Keep in mind that city, county and state boundaries have changed, especially from the times of the earliest censuses. Counties existed then that don’t now, and vice versa. There is a map guide to help you find locations in each census.
When reading census records, read every column, all the way across the page. The wealth of information contained in each census records helps you to learn more about your ancestors. It can also point you toward more documents, like tax, property, military, immigration and naturalization records. Searching census and other records can be a time-consuming task. A professional genealogy research service can provide you with thoroughly-researched, pertinent information from census and other records.

Tracing Your Ancestors with the 1790-1810 Censuses

By order of the Constitution, an official enumeration of United States citizens needed to be made to determine the exact number of representatives each state warranted in the new Congress. Repeated every ten years, the census was posted in a public place for verification and sent to Congress.
The first censuses listed each head of household by name and gave the number of free white persons and slaves in the household. Beginning in 1810, these counts were divided by age group and gender. For example, a family might be listed by the father’s name and indicate that there was one free female under 10, one slave female and one slave male 10-16 years old, one free female between 16 and 26, one free male 26-45 and one free male over 45. For these six people, we have only one name. For full names and exact ages, other records are necessary. This notation system was used through the 1840 census.
Census records of the 1790 census are missing from Delaware, Kentucky, New Jersey, Georgia, and Virginia. They were lost some time before 1830. These were the first but not the last census records to be destroyed through carelessness. It appears that the 1800 census is complete.
The 1810 census also lists information on “manufacturing.” Census takers were not told exactly what to inquire about for this category, so it may include personal property, livestock, etc. Indications of property should also lead you to tax and deed information.

A descendant of many avid genealogists, Jordan McCollum works for 10x Marketing, an internet marketing firm. For more information on tracing your ancestors or professional genealogy research, see www.heirlines.com — Heirlines Family History & Genealogy.

Family history is becoming a more popular pastime, especially now that the Internet has made researching your ancestry easier than ever. More than 60 percent of the U.S. Population is interested in tracing family history, according to a 2000 poll by Maritz Marketing Research Inc. This is a 15 percent increase from 1995. This number has most likely increased since then.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints provides a number of helpful resources for family history enthusiasts. One of the best resources for family history on the Internet is www.familysearch.org. According to the website it is “the largest collection of FREE family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.” This website is the result of decades of research and includes 957 million names. The Family Search website also gives some advice for beginning your family history. It says: Begin with yourself and your immediate family by recording information you already know. Look for important documents such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, and death certificates. When you have written down all the names, dates, places, and relationships you know, then ask your parents, grandparents, other relatives, and family friends for information. Gather as much information from living sources as possible. Then begin to search for records that other people may have compiled about your family (such as published family histories, county histories, and genealogical databases). When you have examined these sources of information, begin your search for records from the time and place your ancestors lived (look for census data and vital records such as birth, marriage, or death certificates).

The LDS church also provides family history research centers at 4,407 sites around the world. These facilities are essentially branches of the Family History Library located in Salt Lake City. They provide access to almost all of the microfilms and microfiche from the central library. These family history centers also have volunteers that will help visitors with their genealogical research. Mike Provard, North American Operations Supervisor for Family History Centers says that in many centers the majority of the patrons are not members of the LDS church. “In the eastern U.S., 90 to 95 percent of the patrons [in some centers] are not members. They are thrilled to have the centers in the area.” (“Family History Centers Spreading,” Ensign, February 2006, 74).

The LDS church definitely provides more resources, records, facilities and tools than any other source for genealogical research. There are, however, a good number of other free family history resources that can be found on the internet. You’ll have to be fairly diligent though as some of these sites can be difficult to find. One site that may be useful in your search of the Social Security Death Index is: www.newenglandancestors.org This site will allow you to search the SSDI for free.

As millions of people begin to look for their ancestors and want to know more about them, the resources and tools available to them are more readily available and easier to use then ever. Now is a great time to start your search.

I have been looking for years to find the first Irish immigrant Murphy in my family. I could trace back to my great-grandfather Edward C. Murphy of Indianapolis. My dad, now 87, thought he was born in Ireland and spoke with a brogue, but could never verify the birthplace. My research led me to believe that it was likely that he was born in Indiana. Only one census record said he was born in Ireland, but that same census said his mother was born in Indiana!

I visited the county and state records in Indianapolis to find his birth date and place, hoping to dig further into his past, but to no avail. Before leaving Indianapolis on my fruitless quest, I thought I would check-in with the county marriage records. After my grandmother died, he married a Katherine Prendergast, whom I had little interest in, since she was not a blood relative. I had the book and page number or their wedding certificate, which I had found through Ancestry.com.

Down in a basement of a city building, there it was on microfilm! Not only did they have the marriage certificate, they had the application which contains much more information.

On the application he had listed James Murphy, born in Ireland, as his father! Eureka! (I gave the lady who helped me a tip.) I also learned that he was married to an Elizabeth Cloud of Noblesville, Indiana, and that my great-grandfather was born there.

It was one of those long-shots that I so frequently read about in your paper, but I thought it would never happen to this very amateur family sleuth.

One of your goals is to perhaps collect enough information to sit down and write a family history or a biography of particularly interesting or favorite ancestors. Regular readers of this column have often seen me refer to the wonderful town of Rome, Georgia, and to my great-grandfather, Green Berry Holder. He is my favorite ancestor and one to whom I feel very close. He was an exciting man, born in 1843, who served as a Confederate soldier, relocated with his parents and older brother after the war to western Georgia, became a merchant, was the first postmaster of two post offices, and bought land on which there was a cave and started the North Georgia Fertilizer Company, and much more. He had a successful marriage and produced twelve children. I’ve been working on a biography for quite a while, but it has been a slower process than I have hoped.

I attended the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Salt Lake City this month and found some very interesting books and software to help your (and my) writing efforts. In "Along Those Lines. . ." this week, I want to share a few of these with you.

Writing the Family Narrative
Writing narrative text can be a challenge to many family historians. You may be an ace researcher who enters data ands source citations into your genealogical database with great ease. Entering data and writing the type of flowing, interesting family history that will capture people’s attention, though, is much different.

Lawrence P. Gouldrup, Ph.D., has written a pair of great books that can help you realize your dream of creating a great family history. Writing the Family Narrative, published by Ancestry, is actually two books that together make a great instructive set. One is the actual textbook that helps you use genealogical and historical records to create historical context. He then instructs you in how to write the actual narrative, and how to develop and use point of view in writing the document. Bibliographies and other citations are well-explained, as are other essentials of writing the history. The other book is the Writing the Family Narrative Workbook, the perfect complement to the textbook. The workbook further defines information presented in each chapter of the book, provides examples of writing styles and techniques, and provides ample space for you to apply your new knowledge and to improve your writing style. Used together, I think you’ll find that your own writing style will greatly improved and your family history narrative will become a more natural extension of your research.

Producing a Quality Family History
One of the best books about publishing your family history is Patricia Law Hatcher’s Producing a Quality Family History, also published by Ancestry. Ms. Hatcher addresses writing and style, of course, but she also discusses the technical issues associated with preparing a manuscript for publication. That includes page layout and formatting, the use of various type fonts, developing and including charts and diagrams, using photographs, preparing camera-ready art and manuscripts for printers, technological issues, and thoughts about self-publishing. This book is considered one of the standards of family history writing.

Personal Historian Software
Personal Historian is a software package sold by RootsMagic, Inc., publisher of the RootsMagic genealogical database program. Personal Historian is an affordable software package that assists you in writing personal histories about yourself and other individuals. A wizard-type facility guides you through setting up an individual or family. You may either enter information manually or you can import a GEDCOM file and select the person whose information you want to import. Of that person’s information, you can select the other persons related to your subject or unselect and exclude them. You can do the same with events, and you can even specify the time frame of lifespan events you want to include (the entire life or a selected range of years). Once the data is imported, you can select to use one of a library of “Life Capsules,” packaged sets of timelines, historical events, cultural events, prompts, and “memory triggers” covering a wide range of subjects. The Life Capsules will incorporate detailed chronological historical events into your ancestor’s life. You can delete those which aren’t applicable. Here you can develop context or see gaps in your research.

The program gives you the options of adding new journal entries or topics and deleting items that are not important to your story or that of your ancestor. For each topic, you can write text with a built-in word processing facility. You can copy and paste data/notes from your genealogical database’s notes (these are not imported). The program also allows you to insert photographs and files into the textual document to add interest. (You also can copy-and-paste photos and then resize them within the text area.)

Finally, you can publish everything that you have created as a history. The resulting document can be saved as an RTF or PDF file and/or can be printed. When you preview the print document, you may decide to revise what you have already done. Simply close the preview window and return to the topic and event areas you wish to revise.

Genealogical Writing in the 21st Century
Those genealogists interested in writing for periodicals such as The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, New England Ancestors, and other journals and, in fact, any kind of genealogical writing will be interested in a book published by the New England Historical and Genealogical Society. It is titled Genealogical Writing in the 21st Century: A Guide to Register Style and More, edited by Henry B. Hoff. The book is a compilation of articles by professional writers, with each article presenting invaluable tips, techniques, and styles for producing quality written material for publication, regardless of the medium: journals, magazines, genealogy books, family histories, and the Internet. This small volume, available from NEHGS, will help you polish your writing into a professional style.

The International Society of Family History Writers and Editors
It’s always fun and informative to network with other writers. The International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE) is a membership organization whose primary goal is to encourage excellence in writing and editorial standards in genealogical publishing. This embraces all media, including newspapers, magazines, newsletters, professional journals, books (including compiled family histories), online columns, society and personal websites, Web logs (blogs), and broadcast journalism of all sorts.

ISFHWE publishes an excellent quarterly newsletter, Columns, that includes informative articles about writing, news, tips, websites, book reviews, and many other items. ISFHWE hosts an annual Excellence-in-Writing Competition with cash prizes. A public website allows members to submit their publications and writing venues for added exposure and a public mailing list is used for discussion of writing topics. Members have access to a Members-Only website graciously provided by MyFamily.com. Here our members share information on a private message board, can upload files with sample writing for peer review and comments, a chat room for discussions, a calendar of events, a photograph gallery, and more. ISFHWE maintains a presence at the NGS and FGS Conferences with meal functions, sponsored lectures, and a booth in the exhibit hall. A new Member Book Promotion Project was introduced at the recent FGS Conference in Salt Lake City, in which members submitted copies of books they had written, edited, or published, along with a fee to cover ISFHWE’s expenses of shipping the books and publishing a catalog of those books that was distributed to conference attendees. Bookplates were placed in each book and, at the conclusion of the conference, the books were presented to the host society for placement in one or more libraries of their choice. If you are interested in joining ISFHWE for $15 a year, visit their website.

Electronic Options
The traditional print publishing process is still considered the method of choice, although there are electronic publishing options as well. Printing on demand is another topic that you may want to investigate on the Internet companies that may offer this type of service. One of these is Lulu. Books by You offers a personal publishing kit for Our Family History that you can use to compose a family history book, and then you can order additional copies of the book. Llumina Press may also provide a print-on-demand resource for you.

You Have Options!
As you can see, there are many options for learning more about family history writing and publishing. It takes the investment of some time and energy to learn and consider these but it helps to know you are not alone.

Happy Writing!
George

This week I had a chance to read Karen Clifford’s new book. The full title is The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program. That title insinuates a rather ambitions book: one that covers genealogy AND the Internet AND genealogy software all in one volume. I am pleased to report that Karen Clifford actually pulled it off; this is a good book.

This 350-page book serves as an excellent introduction for anyone just getting started in researching a family tree. Clifford assumes that the reader owns a computer and already has used the Internet a bit. The book focuses on how to do genealogy, not how to use the Internet. The book trains the reader in the fundamentals of genealogical research while using modern tools, such as computers and Web sites.

Karen Clifford is an Accredited Genealogist and is an instructor in genealogy and computer classes at Monterey Peninsula College, California. Her educational background is evident in this book; each chapter of the book is a self-contained teaching module. The chapters include:

Principles of Success for the Family Historian
Organizing Family Information
Becoming Acquainted with Your Genealogy Program
Why Document?
Printing Your Records
Your Family History Notebook
Developing A Sense of Our Ancestors’ Environment
Resolving Conflict
State Vital Record Offices, Public Libraries, Courthouses and Local Repositories
Resources of the Family History Library
Major Databases of the Family History Library
Using Local Family History Centers
National Archives and Regional Records Services Facilities
Census Records Between 1850-1920
Analysis and Goal Setting
Sharing Your Family History research
The book ends with a large number of genealogy forms that may be photocopied and used again and again, and then a large index.

The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program is written in an almost conversational style. I found it easy to read, and yet the data contained within it is excellent. The book also has many pictures, drawings, and even cartoons used to illustrate key points.

The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program by Karen Clifford, published by Genealogical Publishing Company, sells for $24.95. Almost any bookstore can order it for you if you specify ISBN #0806316365.

The most FAQ’s by those who are getting started in genealogical research (family history) are, “Where do I start?”, and, “Where can I go to get help?”

If you are just starting it is very important that you do so with a blank piece of paper (or a laptop) on which you write your own full name, date and place of birth and date and place of marriage if you are married. On that same sheet write the same details for any brothers and sisters. Be as neat as you can; neatness is a precursor to geneology accuracy.

Note: This is a good time to learn an important genealogical principle. Even though you may be quite certain of the dates you have written down for your siblings, check with your siblings and/or your parents to confirm that the dates are correct. It also pays to check names of siblings, particularly if you are the youngest in a large family. Some of your brothers or sisters may have been commonly called by a middle name, or a name given to them by an influential grandparent.

It is for this reason, that of being certain, that vital records are necessary to identify individuals. Ultimately you will seek access to birth, marriage and death records in order to confirm what you think, or believe, to be true. In time you will find yourself accessing the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), one of the countries most popular geneological data bases. Before you pass into history and become part of somebody else’s geneology, you will have researched many of the places where the names and information of those who have comprised the great passing parade of American life are now stored.

Taking a second blank sheet of paper, now write your father’s full name, date and place of birth, marriage and death (if deceased). Repeat this process for your mother, using your mother’s maiden (name prior to marriage) name.

Following the process of confirming the details, if your parents are still alive, ask them to make any necessary corrections or additions.

Using a separate sheet of paper ask each parent write the names, birth, marriage and death dates of each brother and sister. This information you will confirm at a later date. You are simply building your geneology data base.

Have your parents write the full name of their parents (just as you wrote for your parents), with birth, marriage and death dates (if they have them)?

If your grandparents are still living, visit with them as soon as possible, have them confirm the information your parents have given you about them and then have them provide you with whatever additional information they have.

Now you have the beginnings of your family history. Still the question remains, “Where do I go to get help?” Well, you have the first important response: To those of your relatives who are still living! It is vital that over the course of your search for your geneology you remember that those who are living are a most significant resource.

Here are some further tips.

So that you do not become overwhelmed by the data you are collecting, you should begin to get an understanding of how best to organize this and future data. There are conventions that will help you see and recognize relationships at a glance. To accomplish this you might want to make contact with your local Geneological Society. Most US cities and towns have at least one. Try your local historical society if there is not a telephone listing under Geneological Society. If you have a branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in your community, they normally have a Family History library on their premises. There is no membership charge and you should find that they are willing to be of assistance. If you feel awkward about dealing with the Mormons, it may help you to know that they tend not to use these libraries for missionary purposes and generally they are well patronized by those who are not members of their faith. Searching the Internet for a geneological society should also be on your list. After all, that is how you got here.

When you are visiting with relatives, it is always good practice to ask if they have a family Bible, journal, or any medium on which geneological (family) history has been recorded. If you are unable to borrow these records, then perhaps you will be permitted to copy the data that is in them?