On most Mondays, I publish brief e-mail interviews with some of our lookup providers. This week I’m highlighting Carolyn McNicholl of McNicholl Genealogical Services.

From McNichollGenService’s Profile

Carolyn’s firm specializes in genealogical document retrieval for Scotland. She has convenient access to all the major Scottish record repositories in Edinburgh. Carolyn is a member of APG, the Society of Genealogists, and the Scottish Genealogical Society, among many others. She’s undertaken genealogical studies through the University of Toronto, the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Dundee.

Nine Questions with Kathy

1)    How did you get started doing genealogy lookups/research?

Genealogical research has always interested me since I was young. Lookups and research are part of my work everyday as a professional genealogist to help others with their own family history since 1994.   Sometimes a person cannot get to go
to a particular facility to obtain a document, and this is where we step into the gap to help.

2)    Do you have a genealogy “superpower”? If so, what is it?

I would say that my “superpower” would be that I cannot let go of something - dogged determination to find the answer to a problem.

3)      Describe a tricky research problem you’re particularly proud of having solved?

A client who could not find the birth of an ancestor in Scotland or Ireland, but I was able to find out that the first name of the person was incorrect in the marriage certificate - the flood gates opened after that.

4)    What are the ideal elements you like to see in a well-formulated lookup request?

Really just to have as much information as possible that a person may know, especially if it is a very common name such as Smith or McDonald, etc.

5)    What’s the most interesting record source or repository you’ve utilized in your area?

The National Archives of Scotland is a fantastic place for all those “non-vital” records.

6)    What technical tools do you use to produce the digital images you provide to clients?

Paintshop Pro, MS Paint, Adobe

7)    Any new lookups you’re considering offering?

None at this time.

8)    What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started as a lookup provider?

I would say go for it.  If you have some experience in your own family history research than you should have a good chance at providing lookups for others.

9)    What other passions do you pursue when you’re not at the archives doing lookups/research?

Hillwalking, Camping, Cooking, Music, Surfing the Web, Reading.

Lookups Carolyn Offers

• Scottish Birth Certificate (Certified Copy), 1855-2010
• Scottish Death Certificate (Certified Copy), 1855-2010
• Scottish Marriage Certificate (Certified Copy), 1855-2010
• Scotland Monumental Inscriptions , 1700-1900
• Scottish Wills and Inventories, 1600-1901
• Scottish Census Returns , 1841-1901
• Scottish OPR Births and Christenings, 1600-1854
• Scottish OPR Marriage Bann, 1600-1854
• Scottish Birth Certificate , 1855-2010
• Scottish Death Certificate , 1855-2010
• Scottish Marriage Certificate , 1855-2010

I’ve spent a sizeable fraction of my evenings the past few weeks working on applications to summer startup accelerator programs. Genlighten’s to the point where we could really benefit from the mentoring, community, focused intensity, and access to seed-stage funding that these programs offer. The ones we’re particularly aiming at are:

• Y Combinator
• Techstars (the Boulder version)
• NYC SeedStart
• Dreamit Ventures
• Excelerate Labs

The application questions reflect each program’s unique personality, but they also share some predictable common elements (What will your startup do? Who are your competitors? How do you plan to make money?) Though none of them specifically ask for revenue estimates (they’re smarter than that), they all imply that they’re looking for startups that are attacking large potential markets.

The Challenge of Sizing the Genealogy Market

That’s a problem for us. Just how big is the genealogy market? This question has been addressed in numerous forms over the years, usually phrased as “Just how popular is genealogy anyway?” Dick Eastman has taken a serious crack at answering this question in the past and arrived at the answer (paraphrasing slightly) “probably not as popular as we think.”

When I tell people I meet at startup-related events that I’m working on a genealogy website, they usually say something like “Oh… that sounds like a nice little niche.” Their body language sends the message that they don’t think I’m going to be getting rich anytime soon. I’m tempted to offer a response like “It’s actually a pretty big market,” but  I just don’t have the numbers to back that claim up.

My Estimate and How I Arrived At It

For the applications I’ve submitted so far, I’ve basically tossed out a made-up genealogy market size number: $1 billion in annual revenue. How did I come up with that number? Here’s my back-of-the-envelope calculation (all figures annual):

• Ancestry.com 2009 revenue: $225M
• All other genealogy websites: $100M
• All other genealogy software: $50M
• Professional genealogy services: $100M
• FHL microfilm orders: $10M
• Government archive film/document orders (NARA, State, County): $100M
• Vitalchek: $50M
• Other genealogical record retrieval (libraries, historical societies): $25M
• Genealogy societies (membership, conferences,  transcriptions): $15M
• Other genealogy merchandise (books, accessories, etc.): $25M
• Specifically genealogy-related travel: $300M

Feel free to check my math, but I get that to add up to $1B annually.

Probing My Assumptions

Of the figures I’ve listed, only the Ancestry revenue number is anything other than a wild guess. The travel number is particularly suspect. I’m thinking about “pilgrimages to ancestral homelands” like Ireland, Germany or Poland, so they’re probably pretty expensive, but how many people are actually making those kinds of trips in this economy? And what about professional genealogists? Are they really making $100m in annual revenue, or is the real number more like $50M?

I feel a little more confident about the web and software company revenue figures, though they’re also probably a bit generous. But very few genealogy-related firms are public, so it’s always going to be difficult to refine these numbers without direct input from the leadership of these firms.

Does It Matter?

To the majority of family history enthusiasts, the size of the genealogy market probably isn’t that important. But if we’re going to encourage entrepreneurs to build innovative genealogy-related companies, and if those companies are going to receive the funding they need to grow and succeed, someone’s going to have to come up with a better estimate than I have. Hopefully a much bigger one!

I came across this video on Kevin Menzie’s blog today. Kevin runs Slice of Lime, a design, web development and strategy firm in Boulder, Colorado. SoL’s done a huge portion of the front-end design work for Genlighten. As you may recall from previous posts, they created our logo, this blog, and the basic design palette of Genlighten itself. (I’ll take credit/blame for the navigation, architecture, and feature set.)

The video shows part of the design process for one panel of the “How Genlighten Works” illustration on our homepage. It’s accompanied by some very pleasant background music which Kevin also composed. Enjoy!

Creating a monitor icon from Kevin Menzie on Vimeo.

Here’s what Dean’s been able to learn so far about his GUILFORD ancestors.

1. Dean Richardson

2. Roberta Matthews Knapp

3. Kenneth Guilford Knapp, born 07 January 1906 in Worcester, Worcester, MA; died 8 Sep 1974 in Bradenton, Manatee, FL.

4. Rosamund Guilford, born Jun 1874 in Williamsburg, Hampshire, MA; died 1942 in Westfield, Union, NJ.

5. Andrew Guilford, born 1839 in Conway, Franklin, MA; died 14 Sep 1876 in Williamsburg, Hampshire, MA.

6. Ebenezer Morris Guilford, born 24 Dec 1813 in Williamsburg, Hampshire, MA

New FamilySearch and several Ancestry Member Trees also point to Ebenezer Morris being the son of Ebenezer Guilford and Mary or Polly Packard. We haven’t been able to document that connection to our satisfaction yet.

The image at the top of this post is from the 1860 US Federal Census for Williamsburg, Hampshire, MA and shows a “Morrison Guilford” married to Sally and living next to their sons Lewis and Andrew.

If anyone researching the Guilfords of Massachusetts comes across this and has information to share, We’d be very grateful to hear from you. Thanks!

I first met Jean at the St. George Family History Expo last year. She and her husband Butch had an exhibit booth near mine, and Butch played tunes on his saw occasionally throughout the day in the exhibit hall. That got my attention and I was soon able to visit their booth and get to know them. We met again at the Colorado FHE a few months later. I found we had several things in common: in particular, she grew up in Wilmette Illinois where we now live! That led to Jean and Butch giving one of their marvelous musical/historical programs to members of our Stake in Chicago not long afterwards.

Jean’s blog  — Circlemending — combines the two main passions that my wife and I share: genealogy and music, particularly folk music. Jean frequently melds the two topics together marvelously in her posts. An example: she writes about the banjo that belonged to her great grandmother, which she had restored and now plays in her presentations.

Jean shares photographs, artifacts, dates, and places from her own family history (mostly via popular geneablogging memes like Tombstone Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday.) But you can tell she’s most in her element as a writer when she leans back and tells her ancestors’ stories. No doubt her Ph.D. in folklore has something to do with that.

If you’re looking for a pleasant, relaxing geneablog experience with a warm and entertaining storyteller who’s also a board-certified genealogist, you can’t do much better than Jean’s Circlemending blog. Give it a try!

Like so many other historical archives, the National Archives of Australia is facing a budget shortfall. Their solution? They’re closing smaller regional offices and relying more on an existing service that lets patron request records via the web:

According to the Director-General of the Australian Archives, Ross Gibbs, the proposed closures were consistent with a growing reality that very few people walk into the NAA offices to peek into the collection.

The overwhelming majority make contact from their desk, ask the archivists to find what they need and send it to them.

This negates the need for regional offices. It is possible to store the documents in a central location and send them wherever they are needed. Last year more than two million people logged onto the NAA website and many requested documents that were scanned and emailed to them.

Welcome to the digital age.

Indeed. Here at Genlighten, we kind of like the idea of having people log on to a website and request documents that are scanned and uploaded to their accounts on that site.

Quote from the article “Priceless: National Archives in the digital age” from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s website. Via EOGN.

Walter Ferdinand Knapp was born on 16 October 1872 in Easton, Aroostook County, Maine. He was the son of Hiram Loring Preston Knapp and Mary E. Gilbert.

Walter married Rosamond Fannie Guilford on 24 April 1897 in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts.

Rosamond was born in June of 1874 in Williamsburg, Hampshire County, Massachusetts to Andrew Guilford and Harriet Amanda Fisk(e).

Walter died of typhoid fever on 4 December 1906 in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Rosamond died in 1942 in Westfield, Union County, New Jersey. They are both buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery in Florence, Hampshire County, Massachusetts.

The image shown here was added to Find A Grave by P.K. Magruder on 21 January 2010. It is listed there under Memorial #46943655.

On most Mondays, I publish brief e-mail interviews with some of our lookup providers. This week Kathy Zavada was nice enough to respond to my interview invitation.

From Kathy Zavada’s Profile

Kathy specializes in Will County, Illinois research, especially for Irish ancestry. She has experience with probate records, estate and guardianship extracts, cemetery transcriptions, newspaper article lookups and more.

Nine Questions with Kathy

1)    How did you get started doing genealogy lookups/research?

Always interested since high school. I am adopted. Once I had children, I started looking for natural parents for health records. Made a promise to myself to help others if I was able to find info which I did.

2)    Do you have a genealogy “superpower”? If so, what is it?

Civil records of all sorts because I worked as a bureaucrat for many years. Able to assimilate records out of order, put them together in order due to mnemonic memory. My daughter says I have an unofficial degree in paper pushing.

3)      Describe a tricky research problem you’re particularly proud of having solved?

Locating my natural birth record. Adopted in one county, natural birth record in another. Got court record of adoption
in one county, then able to locate natural birth record in another.

4)    What are the ideal elements you like to see in a well-formulated lookup request?

Specific location I work in, names, and general time frame.

5)    What’s the most interesting record source or repository you’ve utilized in your area?

Will County probate/estate and guardianship records since they begin in 1838 and predate birth & death records by at least 40 years. Records contain listings of heirs, exact dates of death, listing of household items, and other interesting items found nowhere else.

6)    What technical tools do you use to produce the digital images you provide to clients?

Digital camera and Microsoft Picture It!

7)    Any new lookups you’re considering offering?

None currently

8)    What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started as a lookup provider?

Start out small, don’t bite of more than you can

9)    What other passions do you pursue when you’re not at the archives doing lookups/research?

Granddaughters, knitting, science fiction movies, and history

Lookups Kathy Offers

• Joliet, Will County, Illinois High School Alumnae Directories, 1985-1992
• The First Catholic Church in Joliet,Will County, Illinois, 1838-1851
• History of Will County, Illinois , 1837-1878
• Grundy-Will-LaSalle-Kendall Counties,Illinois-Published Births,Marriages & Death notices, 1840-1889
• Will County, Illinois 1878-1915 Death Index compiled by Will Grundy Genealogy Society, 1878-1915
• Obituary lookups Wilmington,Will County, Illinois Library only, 1865-current

In a fun blog post entitled “The Genealogy Instant Answer Line“, Arlene Eakle educates her impatient (and by implication, naive) clients on just how long it’s going to take to pole vault them over their brick walls:

Please do not expect to have your 20-year problem resolved, with documentation, with full analysis, with pertinent comments and follow-up in supporting sources, in 20 days.  Not happenin’–with your ancestry nor anybody else’s.  When you engage me to solve your hardest-to-find ancestor and link him to an unknown family unit, allow sufficient time for me to do it.

I love this kind of candor. Arlene’s obviously a truly professional genealogist who’s going to be completely straight with you. And she’s clearly right. You probably wouldn’t have come to her for help unless yours was the kind of problem that needed her unique divergent thinking skills and research expertise, applied over months, not days.

But what if the “Instant Answer” was available from a single offline document?

Would it be realistic to expect to have that document retrieved on the same day you decided you wanted it? What about if you wanted it in an hour? A few minutes?

“Just In Time” On-Demand Genealogy Document Digitization

Consider the following (admittedly contrived) scenario. You’re browsing the Family History Library catalog online  at about 9 pm Central time on a Thursday evening. You notice there’s an FHL film (say 1671673) that has a pretty good chance of holding the marriage record for your great-great-grandparents. It hasn’t yet been digitized and indexed on the FamilySearch Record Pilot, unfortunately. You could go to your local FHC tomorrow and order it for $5.50. It’d probably arrive in 2-3 weeks.

But what if you wanted to know RIGHT NOW if film 1671673 contains that marriage record, or if you should try a different research avenue instead, all without interrupting your genealogy flow? What if you could log onto a website, enter that film number, and immediately see a list of people who were at the FHL right this minute and who could go pull the film for you? What if the researcher you selected could then browse through the film on a reader, locate the marriage record you’re after, scan it directly to a digital image, and upload that image to the website for you to view and download, all within about 15 minutes of receiving your request?

We have the technology…

As it turns out, this scenario is completely plausible. In fact, here at Genlighten we’ve already begun building the infrastructure to make it real. It will probably end up relying on web-enabled smartphones and make use of Twitter’s APIs. Clients who want this kind of near-real-time response will need to pay a premium for it. But the cost of this service will still be comparable to that of requesting the film.

So… are you interested?

Can you think of a situation where you might use this? How much would an “Instant Genealogy Answer” be worth to you?