Virginia Freedmen's Extraction and Indexing Project at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia

Virginia's governor will be making an announcement this morning about the Virginia Freedmen's Extraction and Indexing Project. The speech will take place at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center on East Clay Street in Richmond. Per his web site, "Governor Kaine will make an announcement regarding the digitizing of records of the Virginia Freedmen’s Bureau, the earliest major compilation of information on the African-American community including names, marriages, educational pursuits, work contracts, health care and legal services."

I think the project is near completion and may be opening to the public. However,I am not terribly familiar with the museum or the project itself. If you would like more information, you can check out the links below. The first link is for a PDF that layout the scope of the project. The second link is to the museum's web site.

Virginia Freedmen's Extraction and Indexing Project (PDF)

Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia

Cemetery workers accused of digging up graves, reselling plots (CNN)

There was an article on CNN's website this morning about cemetery workers digging up graves and reselling the plots. The cemetery in question was Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, located about 20 miles south of Chicago, a historic, African-American cemetery. Those involved apparently dug up older, less-visited graves and dumped the bodies. The plots were resold and the cash was pocketed. Luckily police have busted the ring...but the damage is already done.

You can read the full article at their web site: Cemetery workers accused of digging up graves, reselling plots

I have been so far removed from genealogy lately, I feel like I have almost given up on the hobby! Work has been hectic and we just moved to a new house. My kids have both had strep throat and I am feeling a little rundown myself. I am trying to paint rooms, install hardwood floors, design and installing a new kitchen...the list goes on and on.

On top of that, I am trying to do some work on my genealogy lessons, the ones I am offering at USA Family Tree. I want the system to basically run on its own but I need to add the final four lessons, for a total of 20 in the series. I am also trying to add some supplemental web pages that give more info than just the emails can offer. That is a slow process for me. It requires a lot of time that I do not have.

I have at least been able to set up my new office. It is not perfect yet but it is functional. Now, if I can only get the time to sit down and use it!

The Generations Network formally becomes Ancestry.com

Thought I would pass along a note that The Generations Network has once again changed its name. Now it will be formally called, Ancestry.com. This is about the third name change in as many years! This is the same company that "took over" Rootsweb and Family Tree Maker.

Cemetery database removed from this site

I wanted to point out that I have removed the cemetery transcription database from this site. I never did much with it so there should be no big loss. I thought I should point out that it was gone. It used to reside at the bottom of the page.

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New look for the blog, tired of the old green

I am working on a new look for the blog. I am getting tired of the old green, it has been around for a few years now. For the time being, I am going to leave it plain white. I imagine this will be easier to print off on your computer, if you find something here worthy of printing! I will being playing with the format for the next few days so bear with me.

Rebel Yell - What did it sound like?

I had an email forwarded to me this morning from two cousins that was absolutely amazing. I am not easily amazed but this did it!

The Museum of the Confederacy was involved with recreating an authentic Rebel Yell. They obtained original recordings of Civil War veterans and amplified the sound to recreate a Confederate charge! I consider myself to be a Southerner but the yell is nothing like I ever expected...nothing like you would hear on the "Dukes of Hazard"! It sounds like imminent death. I would hate to be on the other end of the Confederate charge!

The link below is to the local NPR station, look for the link for the Rebel Yell. I do not know how long the link will work so check it out as soon as possible...

http://www.ideastations.org/radio/archive.html

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Russell County, Virginia Chancery Causes to be Scanned

I spoke with an "insider" at the Library of Virginia and she said that Russell County is about to have its chancery court records scanned to go online. It will take a long time but the process is about to be started.

Finally back online and home!

After almost two weeks without Internet access, I am back online! We just finished moving into our new house...or should I say moving out of our old house. It will be awhile before I can say we are "moved-in." So far we have put the bedrooms together but the rest of the house needs lots of work. Once I get settled, and get my office back up and running, I will post some pictures of the new place!

Things have been pretty busy for me also due to a glitch with my genealogy lessons by email website, USA Family Tree. The way the site works is that email lessons are sent out automatically, supposedly in proper order. I wanted to delete one of the lessons...and did so. It inadvertently then knocked everyone up by one lesson, meaning if you were on lesson five the next lesson you got was seven, skipping six.

I had almost 500 lessons to send out manually, to anyone that reported being skipped by the glitch! It took me several days to get it fixed but I think it is pretty much done. It was a lot of work but, if people take time to read my lessons, I want to make sure they get them all! They obviously cared enough to write so it was my duty (and pleasure) to follow up with them.

As for genealogy, it has obviously taken a backseat to the move. I have been thinking about some things but have not had time to really do anything. I have some good ideas but it will be a few more days before I can really do anything with them.

2009 FGS Conference in Little Rock, thinking about going...or not!

I have been giving a lot of thought about going to the FGS (Federation of Genealogical Societies) conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. The event is being held at the Little Rock Statehouse Convention Center, September 2-5, 2009. I am on the fence about going for several reasons.

From what I can tell, it would be almost the same price for me to go as an observer as it would for me to rent a booth at the trade show. I could set up a 10' x 10' booth and promote my free, genealogy lesson site, USA Family Tree. There are however a few downsides to doing that...

1. There are a lot of "hidden" charges, such as paying for electricity and Internet service in the booth. If I were going to go, I would want a computer set up in the booth for people to sign up on the spot. That would cost me another $200 or so.
2. If I get a booth, I would not have time to hear any of the speeches or mingle with anyone. (I would hate to miss one of the Elizabeth Shown Mills presentations!) My wife would probably go if I asked (to work the booth) but she would make the trip more expensive by going and she would not want to leave our children for that long.
   
3. I would have to get some booth props made, signage, fliers, etc. That would set me back another $500 or more.

Another big expense for the trip would be travel and lodging. To drive would cost me about $300. To take the train would be about $400. Those are my only two options because a plane would not accommodate my booth props, nor do I like to fly anyway.

As for driving or riding the rails, it is about a two-day trip to Arkansas from Virginia...as best as I can tell. It is something like 16 hours by car. With that in mind, I would have to take off at least a week from work, giving up a future trip to Disney World!!! Also, the hotel will run about $160 per night, including parking.

When taken all together, the trip would cost me about $1,200-$1,500...not including meals or items that I purchase along the way. It would also suck down a week of vacation and put a couple thousand miles on my car! I would really like to go but that is a lot of money!

Let's break it down in the business sense. Exposure is priceless...I get that. My free, genealogy lessons are obviously designed to make money someday so the exposure would be great! I am mostly using these lessons to get my name out there, to become better known in the genealogy world. Who knows, I might come out with something down the road to sell and can use that site to gain credibility in the industry.

I am going to let you in on a secret...some of the back-workings of my genealogy "business"...

I currently run ads at Facebook, the social networking site, to drive traffic to my free lessons site. The last time I checked, it cost me about $0.18 for each person they sent to my site. Of those people, about 33% would sign-up for my lessons. It therefore costs me $0.54 for each person that actually signs up for my lessons. I have almost 800 people signed-up as of tonight...so it theoretically cost me $432.00 to get them signed-up. If I took the $1,200 from the convention, I could essentially buy 2,222 new subscribers through advertising with Facebook. (That would be 2,778 if it cost me $1,500 for the trip!)

The big question is...is my money better served to buy advertising and get 2,222 new subscribers or...is my money better served to go to Arkansas and mingle? There are a lot of people I would love to meet at the convention but I do not know if I can do that while tied to a booth. However, to not rent the booth would only save me, maybe $200. That is too small of a difference to pass the booth up...I would have to get a booth. However, I can almost promise your that I will not get 2,222 subscribers from the booth.

What would you do? I have until July 1st to make my mind up. I am leaning on not going but I can be swayed! There will be other conferences in the future so not going now does not count me out later.