Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Blog for Money

You can make money online. Blogitive.com will pay you to write in your blog. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it, but it is true. Blogitive.com will pay you each week, through Pay Pal, to write in your blog.

The popularity of your Blog is important. Qualify for Blogitive’s program by submitting your blog into RSS Syndication sites like FeedBurner.com, commenting on other people's blogs, submitting to blog directories, and asking friends to add you to their blogroll. Once your Blog qualifies, you can participate in Blogitive’s web release program and start making money online. You will usually make $5 per post. There are people who are making $1000 a week with Blogitive, but they have multiple blogs. You can submit as many blogs as you want to as long as they meet Blogitive's requirements.

This is just one way to make money with Blogitive.com. Two new programs will launch soon - NewsNerve and Ghost Writing. NewsNerve is a service that will display relevant syndicated news headlines and allow you to earn money from every click that your visitors make. Ghost Writing doesn't require a blog, just good writing.

Blogitive will roll out more ways to make money as they come off the drawing board and implemented.

Filing Systems

I think there are as many ways to set up your filing system as there are people doing genealogy. I'm going to detail just a couple.

1. The one I started out with used file folders, numbered documents, a master sheet, and family group sheets in a binder. This was a very awkward system that took up a lot of time to keep it current. I don't recommend it, but it is one that many people use.

2. Another method uses manila envelopes, one for each direct ancestor family, or in other words, John Doe's family envelope would include all the information you have on his children and their descendents except for your direct ancestor and their family would be in another envelope with all the children and their descendents except your direct ancestor. In these envelopes you keep not only the family group sheets for the married couple, but for their children that married except for your direct ancestor. Also in these envelopes you would keep the documents that deal directly with that family. You could end up with several envelopes with John Doe's name numbered 1-whatever. There is also the problem that sometimes you have information that should be in more than one envelope. When that happens put a page in the envelope that directs you to the envelope containing the document.

3. Another method requires 3 ring binders and page protectors. Everything goes in the binders except your research logs. Start with 4 binders and expand as the binders become over crowded.

I would look into other methods you can find on the internet and decide which one will work best for you. I am still deciding how I want to organize my stuff. I lost most of my documentation when we moved and I've got to go back and try to reconstruct it.

Dale L. Edwards

Documentation

Sounds like work, doesn't it? Very important work, but still work. It isn't nearly as much fun as searching for your ancestors, but a necessary evil. Without good documentation a researcher ends up going around in circles because it's very possible without documentation to research the same documents many times and never move on to other possiblilities. When you share information, the recipient would like to know where you got the information, in other words what was the source of the information and is it a primary or secondary source. It makes quite a bit of difference whether the source is primary or secondary. Primary records are vital records or records directly from the subject. Everything else is a secondary source.

Some kind of filing system is necessary, when I just started out I didn't realize the amount of paper you accumulate when doing genealogy. Photo copies are the best way to copy the information from your sources because hand written notes are prone to errors. The information about where, what, and who are best kept in a research log that lists the depository (library, ect.), name of the source (use the same criteria used in term paper documentation), name of the subject (John Doe), and the page number and any other information you feel you need to keep from going in circles, and this record is hand written. I suppose you could type it out when you get home, but I don't think it's necessary.

Dale L. Edwards

Silver and Gold

Monex Deposit Company (MDC) have been America's gold, silver and precious metals investment leader for the past 30 years, and prides itself on having the best United States silver coin prices and programs in the silver coin industry. A large and dedicated staff of hard asset professionals are committed to serving your precious metals investment needs. Offering a convenient market with competitive precious metals prices.

Since 1990 world demand for silver has exceeded annual production. Above ground stockpiles of silver bullion are low and shrinking rapidly. The U.S. government - once the largest stockpiler of silver on the planet - has dumped billions and billions of ounces of silver bars onto the world market since WWII, effectively depressing the silver price. Today the U.S. government is buying silver because the government stockpiles of silver are gone.

For centuries gold has been the best way to preserve wealth. Throughout history man has had an affinity for gold boullion. Today, the beauty of a gold bar lies in its proven ability to diversify investments, protect wealth and preserve one's purchasing power.

Silver and gold are available as coins and ingots.

Family History First Steps

Step 1
Fill out a pedigree chart to the best of your ability. You can download these forms from the internet.

Step 2
Contact older relatives to try to fill in information that is missing on your pedigree chart. Get as much information on your family as you can from these precious resourses because they won't be around forever. I have a friend that asked her grandmother for help with her genealogy and her grandmother said she would, but she died during the night. They will be so happy to talk to you about their past and the people they knew long ago. Try to tape them if at all possible for two reasons. The first is so you can go back and make sure you get the information right and the other is the priceless recording you make of your relative's voice.

Step 3
Now the fun begins. Decide which line you want to follow and begin looking for information on that line. I suggest taking what you know and searching for your names on RootsWeb.com. This is a free site and many people have added their genealogy to the site. You can contact the people who have submitted the information through e-mail. Their e-mail address is with the information in a grayed out area that is hard to read.
Another good place to start is FamilySearch.org and if you are having problems a Family History Center is a good place to go ask questions. There is a Family History Center locator on the website. They have some good how-to information and aids on the site. Ancestry.com is also good, but isn't free. You can join for $10 a month.

Step 4
Document EVERYTHING. Keep a record of where you've searched so you don't keep searching the same records for the same information. I'll go into documentation in more detail in another post.

Just keep following leads, and when you come to a dead end for the moment with the first line you chose, start with your next line.

Good luck with your hunt.
Dale L. Edwards

Family Search

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been redoing their website and Family Search is also getting a new face lift. If you haven't been there in a while, you might want to take a look.

New resources for African American research are available. They have added an indepth guide to African American research available on the website. They are planning on adding audio and video from the recent AAHGS (Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society) conference.

Presentations include:

  1. Dr. Quintard Taylor, Jr., Author and Professor of American History, University of Washington Presentation: Roots West: African American History in the Trans-Mississippi West

  2. Mary Hill, Author and accredited genealogist for Southern and Eastern States Presentation: Finding Records of Your Ancestors: 1870 to Present

  3. Beth Wilson, Retired reference librarian for land records, African-American genealogy, and documentation research Presentation: Trails Back: Tracing Ancestors in Slavery through Census, Probate, and Land Research

  4. Dr. Spencer Crew, Director of the National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. Presentation: National Underground Railroad Freedom Center: Activities and Accomplishments

  5. Angela Walton Raji, Author and avid African–Native American genealogist Presentation: Beyond the Dawes Rolls: Black Indian Ancestry East of the Mississippi

  6. Adele Marcum, Professional genealogist and content specialist Presentation: Where Should I Start? Beginning Research on Ancestry.com

  7. Howard Dodson, Chief, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library Presentation: To be announced

I hope this helps those who are looking for their African American heritage.

Dale L. Edwards

College on the Internet

Capella University, an accredited online university offering graduate degree programs in business, information technology, education, human services, and psychology was founded in 1993. This distance learning mba is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and they are also a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, located at 30 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60602-2504.

The university also offers bachelor degrees in business and information technology. They offer 76 graduate and undergraduate specializations and 16 certificate specializations. At this time they serve 16,000 students located in all 50 states as well as 63 countries. As a national leader in online education, Capella is committed to academic excellence.

Capella University is a subsidiary of the Capella Education Company headquartered in Minneapolis.

Still Here

I need to apologize to my readers because I haven't been writing in my blog. I have no excuse, I just have been busy doing other things. Until I started looking at the dates of my last posts, I didn't realize how long it had been since I last posted. I've got to find a way to earn income and I had been trying to do that with my blogs and writing. I think you have noticed some posts that are basically advertisements for other companies in the blog. I've tried to make the advertisements interesting and relate to the blog's subject matter, but I feel that some of the posts were a reach. I still need to do these advertisements, but I will give you a heads up. If I see a way to slant them toward family history, I will, but some of them just don't slant very well.

The next 3 posts I'm doing are for Blogitive, which pays me to put their ads in my posts. If you are interested in doing this, you can go to blogitive.com and submit your blog to run these advertisements. They pay weekly, and they are very good about paying, it's first come first served to get the assignments, so you have to keep a close eye on their site, but it's worth it.

I will get back to family history very soon.

Dale L. Edwards