Crista Cowan

I haven’t posted much to this blog.  BUT, I have been very busy on another blog of mine:  http://www.samuelmulliner.com.  I’ve started a daily post called “Today in Mulliner Family History.”  That’s been kind of fun.  Good thing I figured out how to do a week’s worth of posts ahead of time and have them all post on the appropriate day, though.  Otherwise, I’d be buried in blogging.

I started that blog as a way to notify the over 2500 (and counting) descendants of Samuel Mulliner (1809-1891) that we will be holding a 200th anniversary celebration in 2009 to honor him and his life.  It has been pretty successful so far.  I have made contact with cousins I didn’t even know I had.  Several people have volunteered to help with the big reunion in the summer of 2009 (which is great - because there’s no way I could even begin to handle it myself).

So, with that and the book writing and the Scotland trip planning all in full swing, I’ve been keeping pretty busy!  I am still doing client work.  But, I’ve had to schedule it out and am quickly getting booked through the end of the year.

It’s shaping up to be a great, last quarter of the year!  Though, I can’t believe we’re in the home stretch of 2007!  Crazy!

I get about three emails a week that start that way.  I have a client who pays me a monthly stipend to do just that – explain things to him – genealogical things that is.

David has a subscription to Ancestry.com.  He loves doing his own genealogy work – being the family detective, if you will.  But he has had ZERO formal training as a genealogist.  And he realized very quickly when he got into this hobby that there is a whole lot more to genealogy than just looking up records.

He knows how to use internet search engines.  He knows about his family.  What he doesn’t understand are the nuances of the records used in tracing genealogy.  So, he’ll find, say, a census record from 1900 listing his great-grandfather and family.  Most family history hobbyists will stop right there.  “Yeah!  I found my family in 1900 living in Hoboken, New Jersey.  There’s great-grandpa Fred and great-grandma Sal and their three children, Hannah, Mortie, and Abe.”  What so many of them don’t know is that there is a whole lot more information listed and implied on that one page that should lead to more records and more discoveries.

Record analysis is just one of the many tasks that genealogists must perform.  So, every week I take the two or three or five emails David sends me with links to a census image or a World War One Draft Card or an Immigration record found on Ancestry.com and I’ll write a report that explains what these records tell us, what that information means in context of his family and the history of the time, and what additional records that information could lead him to next.

And off he goes on another searching adventure – playing amateur detective with his own family – thrilled when he makes a discovery even if he isn’t always quite sure what that discovery means.

I’ve begun to look very seriously into marketing specifically to this particular niche of clients.  It’s a little like being a coach instead of the player on the field.  I love playing the game but if there are people willing to pay me to be the coach – I’m happy to do that as well.

So I am currently serving as the interim president of the “in the process of being formed” Utah Valley Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (or UVAPG).  How’s that for a mouthful.

It was a little surprising to us that this is the first real attempt to organize a chapter here – of all places.  I mean, we have one of the only universities in the country that offers family history as a degree.  We also have, here in our little valley, the largest internet based, genealogy company in the world.

Anyway – we held our first meeting three weeks ago.  There were about 20 people in attendance.  There was a lot of energy in the room as we discussed the things we want to do with this chapter to promote genealogy as a profession and professionalism in genealogy.

A group of genealogists in a room discussing the profession of genealogy - you would think that wouldn’t be that exciting.  But, they are excited – and so am I.  I come in contact with so many people, every day, who want to know more about their roots – who they are, where they came from.  And I can only take on so many clients.  It’s nice to network with people who know more about records in other parts of the country and other parts of the world.  It’s nice to develop a local base of contractors I can use when I need to branch out or subcontract a piece of a project.  And it’s nice to know there are other people who are as passionate about this profession as I am.

Now it’s almost time for our second meeting.  And I realized today that I hadn’t done any follow up from our previous meeting – didn’t email a copy of the minutes, didn’t send the email list to the interim chapter rep, didn’t contact the national organization to let them know we were forming a chapter, didn’t even send out an announcement about next week’s meeting.  I’m not sure how three weeks slipped away from me so quickly.

So, I went ahead and did most of those things today.  And I’ve already received several responses from people who weren’t in attendance at our first meeting, excited about the opportunity to come to our next meeting – people whose names I recognize as important people in this field – people I’m excited to meet.

A group of genealogists in a room discussing the profession of genealogy – it should be good times.  I’ll let you know next week.

The other day a friend told me that I write the way I speak.  My first thought was, “Well, why would I want to write the way someone else speaks?”  On further thought I realized that a lot of people have a writing voice and a speaking voice and never the twain shall meet.  Then I did a little research and learned that there are authors who don’t write their own books and bloggers who don’t write their own blogs.  So I guess it isn’t just that some have a different writing voice than their speaking voice but that they are using someone else’s voice entirely.  How weird is that?

I imagine there’s a time and a place for formal writing, following the rules of grammar and punctuation, doing your best to put your best foot forward.  And I also imagine there are some time saving benefits to having someone else write your blog for you.  But, when you want people to know who you are – and isn’t that one of the purposes of a blog - what’s the point of trying to sound like someone you aren’t – or using the writing of someone who isn’t you.

So, I’m taking up a new blog – a me blog – a blog on a domain with my name on it.  I’m not an expert at very many things.  But I am an expert on being me.  And I am an expert at family history research.  And I am learning how to be an expert business woman, and sister, and aunt, and friend, and author, and teacher.  So, those are the things I’ll talk about.  And I promise that it will be my voice you hear.  Because if you are going to hire me, or work with me, or become my friend – shouldn’t my voice be the one you get used to hearing?