Free Genealogy Service
Care to learn about your roots? Want to find out where your great-great-grandparents were from? Curious what became of a particular family member? Would you like to reconnect with a lost branch of your family? Find cousins in another part of the world? Discover what interesting or famous people you descend from? Uncover explanations for things like genetic illnesses, familial personality traits, or even hair colour? Do you want to begin or expand on your family tree?
Would you like to know more about where you came from?
I'm D.Rutter, an amateur genealogist from British Columbia, Canada. I've been delving deeply into the world of genealogy for the past six months, studying the discipline itself, and working to build out my own family tree. I find it fascinating, challenging, thrilling, and rewarding. I've learned more about myself and my family in the past few months than I ever have in a decade.
Free Service
I want to help people who answered "yes" to some of the above questions. I'm up for the challenge, and I think the blockchain offers a unique platform for genealogy!
As an amateur in this field, with still much to learn as I go, I want to begin slowly, and without asking for anything in return. That said, I will still be professional, do my best possible job, and treat you and your information with courtesy.
To start with, I'm only going to accept a single client, because due to family obligations I have to manage my time wisely.
For this first assignment, to demonstrate a potential outcome, I'm looking for a Steem-based or Hive-based client who isn't against the information being posted on the blockchain. (In future, I may operate mainly by email or other more private means.) The info is essentially already online, but I will be locating it, sorting it out, and assembling it into a post. The result may feel a bit revealing, but keep in mind it's de facto already public knowledge! Any potential threat (a jealous ex, stalker, government agency, etc) already has access to the databases I'll be using and the documents I'll be pouring over.
In most people's cases, if you provide me with some information to get started with, I'll be able to find at least one or two things you didn't already know. There's more info available on some families than others - depending on where they came from, family traditions (like reusing names), religion (baptisms provide quite a bit of info), and many other factors. Obviously I can't promise anything, but I'll do my best to find you some things you didn't already know about your history.
How to Start
If you understand the info will be on the blockchain, that I'm not charging a fee, and that I can't guarantee any particular result, please make a request in the comments below!
I don't necessarily need your own name, and out of an abundance of respect for the privacy of your living relatives, let's not post much of their information. What's best is starting with your grandparents.
What are the names of your father's father and mother, and your mother's father and mother?
What years did they die? Where did they die?
If possible, what years were they born? Where were they born?
If you have other information about them (such as marriage date/location, occupation, involvement in military, year of immigration, etc) provide as much as you want.
What about their parents, and theirs, etc?
If you have names/info of siblings, sometimes that can help.
Are you hoping to discover a particular ancestor or fact? Or just looking for some general information about your background?
Provide any other information (including attachments if you have any) that you think might be helpful.
The Magic
In the next few days, I'll pick a client from the requests I receive in the comments, and within a week, I'll post my results for you and everyone to browse.
At the very least, I think it will be interesting, and there's a decent chance somebody will learn something fascinating or useful about themselves.
For example, I found out about an entire branch of my family - somehow separated or forgotten - who were living in the same region as my known family! And not distant relatives, but fairly close, like second cousins. Sometimes, the investigative work involved can feel like working on a "cold case", except that it's not about crime, it's about family.
If I have time, I'll select a second client to do some research for. Watch for my follow-up post!
After this, I may transition to accepting a fee/donation for my work, depending how things go.
Here's a shot of a rough draft of my own pedigree. These are my grandfather's grandparents - and their grandparents!
I'm still recopying in the top row, but almost all the big mysteries have been solved, and the remainder are motivation to keep digging!
I'd like to help other interested people with something like that. Knowing where we come from can be empowering.