Volunteerism in the Genealogical World

Up until I went back to school in August, my favorite way to volunteer in the genealogy world was through Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.  I began by going to cemeteries to take photographs of tombstones (or grave sites if there wasn't a headstone) for people.  This became a "date" day, once or twice a month, for my fiancé and I, where we would drive around Onondaga county and see who could find the most tombstones, walking up and down the rows in the cemeteries (see why he's a keeper?!?).  Eventually it progressed to my doing searches at the library, mostly for city directories and obituaries, and at the courthouse, where I never had much luck unfortunately.

I also volunteer for FamilySearch Indexing, mainly for the 1892 New York census.  I did not do nearly as many names as I had hoped, but I like knowing I was part of the group that got this project finished.  Just today I received an email from the president of the Western New York genealogy society, to which I belong, asking if I would be willing to to help transcribe or proof read the 1865 New York census, which they are putting online.  I jumped at the chance to be part of this project, as state census' are a tremendously helpful, but often overlooked, resource.  I am also excited to become an active member of the society, despite living too far away to make meetings.

I have received three main things from volunteering in the genealogy world.  First, I learnt about new resources and practiced finding them.  Prior to volunteering with RAOGK, I had no idea how useful city directories were.  This has helped in my research tremendously.  Second, I have gotten a lot of practice in deciphering handwriting.  Although I am still much better at seeing a name I am looking for in a document compared to transcribing unfamiliar handwriting, I will learn this skill and I will learn it much faster than if I just practiced with my ancestors handwriting.  Third, I have discovered a possible career.  I realized how much I love genealogy, not just researching my family, but other families as well.  This has lead me to get my masters degree in library science with the goal of working in a genealogy and local history library.  Eventually, I would like to become a certified genealogist and help people with their search that way, but it will be a few years before I get to that level.

I highly recommend volunteering in whatever capacity you are able.  It helps improve your research skills, introduces you to new people and record groups and builds up good genealogy karma, which will hopefully lead to more genealogy happy dances!

Syracuse, NY City Directories

City directories are not a source I have used often, due to there not being many online and my not knowing that the Syracuse library has the Buffalo ones on microfilm (now that I know I may have to move into the library next week:-).

Yesterday I was looking up some people in the Syracuse city directories for a ROAGK person and found that not only do they list occupations and addresses, but marriage dates and to whom for women, death dates, who a women is a widow of and where a person moved to when they leave Syracuse. This is just amazing! Here's hoping other city directories are this fantastic!!!

I got into Grad School and other stories...

It has been quite some time since I've posted an entry:-(  My boyfriend and I kept passing some illness back and forth for the past few weeks (the joys of living together).  We appear well again, so I'm back:-)

First, my exciting news that I got into grad school for my Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS)!  I am quite excited, if a bit overwhelmed, by this news.  It is one of the best programs in the country and offers a lot of archival and special collections classes, which I am looking forward too.

I have been trying to catch up on all of my Random Acts of Genealogical Kindess (ROAGK) that I received while we had about 3 feet of snow here.  I love doing this for people, as I get to see new cemeteries, with really interesting stones.  It is also nicebecause my boyfriend goes with me, which in a large section makes finding the stone much faster.  I was telling a friend about it and she wants to start going too, as she thinks cemeteries are fascinating.

One of the most rewarding parts of being a RAOGK volunteer has been the people who work in the cemetery offices.  I always had good luck when trying to find my relatives in cemeteries, often because the workers there were so amazed at seeing such a young person interested in their family history.  This still works to my advantage...  At the most recent cemetery I went to, the woman in the office copied the lot book, the file cards and the obituaries she had for me to give to the requester.  She thought they would like to have them.  She was the most friendly and helpful person I have met in a long time and thought ROAGK was a wonderful idea.

In other news, I have a Geni website and through it my family is going crazy over our history.  They are obsessed with the site and the information I have found and are helping me find new relatives and identify photographs.  I even was found by a third-cousin on Ancestry who also had a Geni site and we have now merged them and are working on the tree together.  It is such a fabulous way to get people interested.  The site does have some downsides, in my opinion, but I am working on getting around them and all in all it seems great to get the family together.  The only complaint they have given me is that it takes away from their facebook time;-)

Enough updates for now, I'll be posting the research I have done recently in the next few days.