Genlighten Blog — The easy way to hire a genealogist

Genlighten Success Story: German Translation

16 April 2016 By cyndy Leave a Comment

When a Genlighten provider creates a new research offering, I get email notification before it goes live. It’s my job to review it to make sure it isn’t a spammy ad for fancy sunglasses or knock-off watches or the like. (Fortunately, our spam filter catches 99.99% of these.) I also give it a quick read to catch obvious misspellings and make sure it’s within the spirit of what we’re trying to accomplish with the Genlighten. Then I click the button to publish it on the site.

Last week, I got a message telling me that provider nickmgombash had created a new offering titled “German Church Registers – Per Hour.” Nick is a Chicago-area researcher who specializes in Hungarian and German genealogy and I’ve known him, through email, since the early days of my chicagogenealogy.com website.

One of my current personal research projects involves civil birth registration documents from Wadern in the 1830s and 1840s. I’m researching the family of John A. Hand who was a popular Chicago band leader from the mid-1800s to his death in 1916.

I can read the names on the records well enough to know when I have a match and sometimes I can pick out dates but, other than that, I’m clueless. Even Dean, who speaks German, has a rough time with the handwriting.

So, when I saw Nick’s offering, I sent him a quick message which basically said, “Can you read that stuff?” to which he replied, “Yes!”

I immediately went to Genlighten and created a project request asking for his help with three records. I wanted to keep it simple–I’m on a budget, same as a lot of you–so I asked if he could answer just two questions: Is the father’s occupation listed on any of these register entries? Is there any unique information listed that I should be careful not to overlook? (One of the German records I had translated years ago made mention of a family move and an illegitimate birth.)

Nick came back with a quote. I accepted. And, before the morning was over, he provided three above-and-beyond paragraphs with extracted information.

Here’s the one for John’s brother Peter:

Birth Act No. 194 was registered with the mayor of Wadern on the 5th of December 1834. Peter Hand was born on the 4th of December 1834 at 4pm in Wadern, son of Melchor Hand, musician and his wife Elisabetha München, being 28 years old, both residing in Wadern. The sponsors/godparents were Mathias Ludwig, 34 years old and a ‘gerber’ (tanner); and Peter Wahl, 24 years old, a ‘färber’ (dyer), both residing in Wadern. The informant was the father Melchor Hand, 28 years old, and the registrar was Franz Wahl.

I was ecstatic!

No, I was ECSTATIC!

The information he pulled out of those records is extremely helpful to my search. You can bet that when I’m done gathering records for the other children, I’ll be contacting him for additional help.

The fun part of all this? I learned that John Hand’s father was also a musician, as was his son and his grandson. Four generations of musicians. I love that!

What do I take away from this experience?

The skills you have to offer can really make someone’s research day. If you provide specialized research services, list them on Genlighten, even if you already have your own website. It gives people one more way to find you.
Reaching out to an expert can be a real boost. If you’re struggling with a particular research problem, check our Genlighten database. We don’t have a provider for everything, but we’ve got some really great people on the site.
If you need Hungarian or German research, there’s a good chance Nick can help. (He’s also really good at getting Chicago records fast.)

So, that’s my most recent Genlighten success story. If you have one to share, we’d love to feature it. Send me a quick email and let me know how one of our providers has helped you.

Cyndy
cynthia@genlighten.com

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Nick’s Genlighten Provider Profile
Nick Gombash’s Genealogy Blog
Hungary Exchange

Do You Have Someone Who Does Research in … ? Yes!

15 February 2016 By cyndy Leave a Comment

Down time at the Genlighten booth can only mean one thing — BANJO!

I just spent a week in Salt Lake City, working at Genlighten’s exhibit hall booth at RootsTech 2016. Starting when the doors opened on Thursday morning and continuing through late Saturday afternoon, I had conversation after conversation with visitors, trying to introduce as many people as possible to what Genlighten is all about.

I’m someone who would likely be an 11 on a 1-10 scale of introversion, so the conference scene can be a challenge, but as I talked to booth visitors, I realized there was one thing that I was really enjoying–telling attendees about our research providers.

I tend to be enthusiastic about things I’m passionate about and I found myself saying things like this:

“Oh, yes! We have some really talented researchers in the Maryland area.”

“Yes. She is very good at Chicago research.”

“Yes! This provider translated a hard-to-read German church record for me a few years ago and I thought she did a great job with it.”

“Yes! Getting in touch with her is one of the best ways to get a record from a Family History Library film.”

I’m the one who handles site user support for Genlighten and I’ve come to know many of the providers through phone conversations, by email, and even in person. No doubt about it. We’ve got some great people offering services through Genlighten and it’s a pleasure to work with them.

Dean demonstrating the new Genlighten site

While I was chatting at the booth, I often showed visitors what the provider profiles will look like on the new Genlighten (it’ll go live around the time of the National Genealogical Society confe rence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) and I have to say, those pages do a good job of introducing professionals to potential clients. There’s enough detail there for clients to be able to make a comfortable decision about who to reach out to with the possibility of setting up a project. The pages have space for the usual information–education and training, research services and specialities, localities and repositories covered–but they also include sections for previous-client comments, client/colleague references, sample document and report uploads, and policy statements.

My focus at the moment is helping providers use the templates to create comprehensive profiles on the new site so they’ll be ready to go in May. If you’ve already done that, thank you. If you haven’t, email me so we can get to work on it!

Often times at RootTech, when someone asked, “Do you have someone who can do research in … ?” my answer was, “Yes!” but sometimes I had to answer, “Not yet.” If you offer genealogy research for Japan, Switzerland, or Luxembourg, for example, there are people out there who need your help. Consider creating a profile on Genlighten so we can send them your way.

Cyndy
Genlighten Co-founder
support@genlighten.com

Current Providers: Market Your Genealogy Business on the New Genlighten

27 January 2016 By cyndy Leave a Comment

Dean is coming down the home stretch when it comes to getting the new Genlighten website ready for launch. It’s not quite done–there are tweaks to be made and new features to be added–but we’re ready to start inviting current providers to log in to set up profiles.

I’m going to give you a quick introduction to the new site below. We’ll be introducing it at our RootsTech booth next week so if you’d like your business to appear as attendees explore the site, now is the time!

The Home Page

The new home page is simple and colorful and inviting. The top banner is actually a rotating image carousel that we can use to feature providers. The example below highlights Italian researchers.

Locality, Specialty, and Repository Pages

Clients search or click image buttons find focus pages in three categories–Localities, Specialties, and Repositories.

You can choose which pages your profile appears on and you can select where to place your map pin.

Provider Profiles

Profile pages give potential clients an easy way to learn more about your services, specialties, training, and research experience. The reputation you’ve built on the current Genlighten follows you to the new site so potential clients can review the feedback you’ve received. We also provide a way for clients, colleagues, and friends to post references for you–especially helpful if you haven’t yet had a Genlighten request.

Tabs labeled Skills, Portfolio, and Policies allow you to add additional information to your profile without cluttering the main page. Skills is a checklist of genealogy-related tasks such as “Brick Wall Analysis and Formulation of a Research Plan,” “Lineage Determination,” and “Obituary Research.” Portfolio lets you upload example documents and reports, and Policies lets you state your business approach.

The Hire Me tab explains what clients need to do to initiate hourly research projects and lets you list specific fixed-fee document retrieval tasks, if you wish.

Setting Up Your Profile

Setting up profiles is a straightforward fill-in-the-blanks, check-a-few-boxes, and select-from-dropdowns process. Just don’t forget to click the Update Provider Data button! The most time-consuming part is writing polished text for the About Me, Education/Training, and Research Services boxes, but many of you will already have already written that for other purposes. If you need help finding header images and/or cropping them to the right size, we can take care of that for you.

Managing Projects through the Site

Just like the current Genlighten, all project-related events are tracked on the site. Clients message you or submit project requests using simple forms and you receive email notification when that happens so you don’t need to check the site every day. Just make sure that your email address is current and add system@genlighten.com to your address book so our correspondence doesn’t get caught up in a spam filter.

When a project is created, a dedicated, private tracking page becomes available to you, your client, and Genlighten Support. Use it to post your proposal and quote, to correspond with your client, to send invoices, and to upload documents and reports. All payments are handled securely online and your fees (minus our commission) are credited to your Genlighten account allowing you to transfer them to your checking account at your convenience.

Once the dust settles and we’re sure the basic site features are working without error, we’ll begin adding new features such as report templates and a time tracker to make project management even easier for you. And, more importantly, we’ll launch targeted advertising campaigns to bring more potential clients to the site.

Set Up Your Profile and Let it Go to Work for You

It shouldn’t take you very long to create a professional-looking profile for your genealogy business on the new Genlighten and once that’s done, you can step back and let it go to work for you marketing your services. Just make sure to keep your contact information current and be ready to respond quickly if a potential client contacts you through the site.

The new Genlighten will be free to clients (no payment processing fees and no cost to use the site other than the fees charged by providers) and we will offer a number of provider subscription plans including a free basic option with a 20% project commission to Genlighten. However, providers who set up on the site before 1 May 2016 will be able to choose a legacy plan–all the features of the basic and transitional plans with no monthly subscription fee and a 10% project commission, the same as the current site.

We can’t promise that the new Genlighten will immediately send work your way. Much of that just depends on who visits and what type of research help they need. But, setting up a profile is quick and there’s really nothing to lose! We hope you’l give it a try.

If you have any questions about the new Genlighten, just drop me an email. I’d love to hear from you.

Cyndy
Genlighten Co-founder
support@Genlighten.com

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