26 Money Saving Tips—Saving for a Genealogical Trip By Hazel Beneley

With money-saving strategies you’ll have to consider the time-versus-convenience factor—being thrifty is about saving both time and money. If you adopt these penny-pinching measures, you’ll be surprised just how much you can save. You might free up enough of next year’s budget to afford a trip to your ancestral homeland.

1. Go to the Library.

If your ancestors lived in Uintah County there is a goldmine at our Uintah Public County Library. With your library card barcode you card you can access Heritage Quest that has census records, Persi catalogue, and Revolutionary records. You can request a book thru interlibrary loan. This could take time, however, it is free...www.oclc.org/worldcat/open/tryit tells where to locate books like county history books. I looked for St. Lawrence County New York and found the book located in Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Denver Public Libraries. Closer to home than a trip to New York.

2. Seek complimentary consultations.

Do you have shoeboxes filled with unidentified family photographs? Do you wish there was a way to identify them. www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/photohelp.htm -

3. Build your own library.

Having the Handybook for Genealogists or The Redbook at your fingertips at home would be a great first choice for your home research.

4. Visit Our Family History Center

Our Family History Library has an online catalogue and you could be surprised at what you might find!

5. Surf free Web sites.

www.usgenweb.org - www.rootsweb.com www.cyndislist.com will point to 240,000 digital destinations. Public libraries, historical societies and state archives have started putting research guides and collections information online.

6. Request a lookup.

7. Subscribe to a free e-mail newsletter.

www.familytreemagazine.com/newsletter.asp or www.eogn.com

8. Cut costs with queries.

Use message boards. www.genforum.com is my favorite, however, there are others.

9. Obtain charts online .

You can get free charts from familysearch.org or google.com and type free pedigree charts into the search engine.

10. Practice good record-keeping.

Keep careful research notes and organizing your paperwork and avoid requesting a copy of a record twice or researching the same data twice.

11. Take advantage of free demos and downloads.

PAF is a free download from familysearch.com or borrow our Vernal FHC copy and download onto your computer at home.

12. Join a genealogical society.

The annual cost of society membership is usually a bargain, especially if you plan to use the organization’s resources often.

13 .Maximize your spending

Before signing up for multiple society memberships or online subscriptions, know what your are getting. Always shop around to get the best deal—and to ensure you’re not signing up twice for access to the same tools.

14. Self publish or perish.

If you want to preserve your family’s story in a book, or-demand printing usually is less expensive than short-run publishing.

15. Build a low or no cost home on the Web.

Can’t afford to publish your family history on paper? Save money and reach a wider audience by building a genealogy Web site.

16. Acquire invaluable knowledge attending our Vernal FHC free classes.

There are also free classes offered at the FHC in SLC and their schedule is on family search.com

17. Go for the group rate.

When it comes to research trips, you’ll find savings in numbers. Some hotels offer special rates for genealogists. Travel together and split the gasoline costs.

18. Get discounts on tourist staples.

Write to the chamber of commerce or tourist agency in your ancestor’s home town and request free guidebooks and local maps. AAA member benefits also include free or low-cost maps.

19. Go digital.

Digital cameras come in handy for more than just capturing family functions; you can use them to photograph documents, heirlooms and old portraits.

20. Make low-cost copies.

Cut back on paper copies. On your next research outing, carry your digital camera and take pictures of records and book pages instead of racking up photocopier fees.

21. Key in book bargains.

Several institutions, including the Library of Congress, the university of Michigan and Cornell University are posting books, journals and other materials from their collections online for free. http://books.google.com/

22. Never pay full price.

This basic shopping rule applies to genealogy too. Scout out bookstores’ discount sections, and buy used copies at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com. Try E-Bay for specific title. I got a family history on CD for one-tenth the price of a book copy.

23. Save on vital stats.

Ask for uncertified copies (available only in some states). These cost considerably less than certified ones.

24. Join a mailing list.

You can get gratis family history advice from people who share your research interests by subscribing to a free e-mail list. See Mailing Lists category on Cyndi’s List. http://www.cyndislist.com/mailing.htm There are many including a surname list.

25. Divide and Conquer.

Ask your relatives to help out. Splitting costs and sharing the workload can help you save time & money.

26. Volunteer.

Helping at the FHC is a learning experience. An exchange of information with a patron can be a link to

finding information about your ancestral line.

When all else fails try prayer.

http://www.progenealogists.com/genealogysleuthb.htm # 5

http://www.byubroadcasting.org/ancestors/charts/ # 9

http://www.shareware.com/ #11

http://www.download.com/ #11

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/index.cfm Waste not want not check out a service offered

http://www.infouga.org/usefulinks.aspx Utah G Assoc other links. # 12

http://www.godfrey.org/index.htm good buy if your are going to spend money # 13

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