could I make extra money doing this ?

mirry

Hi people, lay awake most the night worrying about money

And this morning had a idea to earn extra cash,
Basically I have been interested in doing my family tree for the past 7 years.
With this in mind, i am thinking of advertising my services for doing other peoples family history.

I am thinking of advertising in my local area , census searches for the years
1901,1891,1881,1871,1861,1851,1841. @£3.50 for each result.

That would be a total of £24.50 for each family history. would take me about 1 hour to do.

Does anyone think Im dreaming , could it work ?

Skint_Entrepreneur

Might work if these people do not have internet access or if they do not know how to go about finding their family history via internet resources. You need to cover the cost of marketing, e.g. glossy flyers...Keep it in the Family, The perfect gift for loved ones, birthday, anniversary, Christmas. You also need to bear in mind that you would have to consider turning away people who have recently arrived in the UK as their family history will not be recorded in the UK, (in relative terms anyone in the last 100 years) unless you wish to travel to India, Jamaica, Serbia etc. There are independent researchers one can hire to research specific issues of family history (or any historical records) at the Public Records Office in Kew for instance. Visit http://www.sog.org.uk/ and for an example of an Independent Researcher who has gone at it in quite a big way look here http://www.searcher-na.co.uk/index.html (p/s I traced my family to the early 1500s or 13 generations so know a little about this)

mirry

Hi skint, Im sorry I didnt explain it too well (as I said I didnt sleep last night ,lol)
Basically I have been tracing my tree for the past 7 years, the best thing was I found out John Culshaw the impersinator and I are distant cousins!

I would only do Uk searches, although as you probally know Ireland can become a bit of a nightmare.
Its something I enjoy doing, and unless its local all I can offer is census searches....after all it would cost them alot of money to search all the census online, however you can search at the library but most people just dont have the time.hopefully this is where I fit in.

Oh heck, nothing to loose , I will put out flyers this week and let you know how I get on.

Bunnyinthelights

Interesting idea!
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Bunny

mirry

Does anyone know roughly how much it costs to print out a A4 sheet in black ink ? using my new canon printer ?

Skint_Entrepreneur

Don't know how much one sheet will cost. I'd say one ink cartridge per thousand sheets? That aside for anyone checking out a census return 500 credits from the National Archive costs £5 and from their tariff a full census search and resultant details on a name or names in one household will costs 175 units which works out at 2.8 searches per 500 units. How much call for this is there in your neighbourhood? How about taking family history classes, get some pupils registered and if there is enough hire a hall and give weekly classes.

woohoo_postingid

Could you not just ask John Culshaw for some money - he must be minted :rotfl:

mirry

Ask John Culshaw ! lol that would be nice ,lol.

I dont have to pay anymore for the census search facility because I have full subscription to ancestry for a whole year. If people wanted me to look up in librarys then they would need to pay alot of money for my time and travel.

Census can give out most the information needed right back to 1841. Then theres the BDM (births ,deaths and marriages ) which started in 1837, so certificates can be ordered.

As for classes, I couldnt do it, my anxiety is bad enough. I wanted to do jewellery classes ,cos ive been going to jewellery school for the past 6 years , I dont do crowds very well at all..even shopping is a task in itself.

SaveMoreMoney

Sounds a good little idea, and I wish you luck.

However - I think you need more than an hour to search all those years Census records..........allowing for transcipt errors, names etc etc.

And also you will require people to already know the full names of one of their Ancestors who was alive in 1901......to give you a starting point.

Ancestry is £70 a year. Certificates are £7 via the GRO.

Maybe you could offer a service that would help take a person from 2006 all the way back through their Ancestors to the 1901 point and THEN also supply data dealing with those census years.

You will (no might about it !) also spend ages looking up the BMD lists on Ancestry.

As I said at the top, its a great idea...............maybe stick up a few leaflets up in supermarkets, newsagents etc etc. There is a new series of Who Do You Think You Are on BBC1 starting in Spring 2007.........so there is bound to be some more people interested.

Hopefully, you won't get ANYONE asking for your help with surnames like Smith, Williams, Jones, Jackson etc etc !!!

nomoneytoday

Give it a go. Nothing ventured and all that.

Good luck

woohoo_postingid

And, of course, don't forget to register with the Inland Revenue