CONNIE LENZEN, C.G.R.S. 10411 SW 41st Avenue Portland, OR 97219-6984 Phone: 503-244-4357 Fax: 503-245-4723 E-mail: clenzen@dialoregon.net

Genealogy for Free? By Connie Lenzen An article published in the 19 August 2004 issue of the Vancouver Columbian.

 There really is no such thing as a free lunch. There are always strings attached: You may have to sit and listen to a sales pitch. You may have to do someone a favor. You may have to work for the lunch.

     It's that way with genealogy. There is no free lunch. Oh, some people say that everything on the Internet should be free. Some get mad because research on their families isn't available free on the Internet or in a library.

     There is no getting around the fact that this genealogy hobby is expensive. Just list some of the things we "must have": subscription databases, genealogy software where you can enter facts and sources about ancestors, scanners, digital cameras, photocopies, trips to the ancestral home, postage for correspondence with people who do not have e-mail, birth, marriage and death certificates. There are professional researchers who must be hired to go on site. The list goes on and on.

     For genealogy on a budget, the best place to head is to a public library or to a branch of the LDS Family History Centers. Public libraries have purchased subscriptions to Internet databases, and you can use them, usually for free. Public libraries allow you to borrow books from other libraries, usually for free. Public libraries have genealogical periodicals that you can read and check out, usually for free. But it's not a free lunch. We provide funding for our public libraries through taxes.

     One of the best library collections in the United States is the National Genealogical Society's collection at the St. Louis County Public Library. Almost all of the books can be requested, for free, on Inter Library Loan from your nearest public library. To search the catalog, go to http://www.slcl.lib.mo.us/.

    The Family History Centers have subscriptions to Ancestry.com that you can use, usually for free. The centers allow you to borrow microfilm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City for an extremely small fee that covers postage. The centers have collections of CDs that you can use, for free. The catch that makes this not a free lunch is that members of the LDS Church pay for the services that we all use.

     There is one other catch when we use something "free" We need to remember to say "thank you."