Interested in reducing the cost of family history research? Here’s a peek at an article from the Hartford Courant:
Researching Genealogy On The Cheap
March 11, 2012|Korky Vann, Savvy Shopper
Like millions of Americans, I’m hooked on the NBC television series “Who Do You Think You Are?” The show, which follows celebrities as they trace their family trees, got me thinking about my own lineage.
I’m Italian on my dad’s side; French Canadian on my mother’s — and I know very little about either family beyond a generation or two back.
I decided to do some detective work. The first thing I discovered is that genealogy is not just a national pastime, it’s big business. Experts estimate that amateur ancestor hunters spend close to a billion dollars annually on books, software, online data bases, travel, archive and scrapbooking supplies and other materials. My thrifty genes stopped me from shelling out too much on my search, which meant a trip to Italy to explore my father’s roots was out.
A visit to the French Canadian Genealogical Society in Tolland (www.fcgsc.org), and a $5 fee to use the society’s library resource materials to research my mother’s family fit the budget better. Located in the Old County Courthouse on the town green, the Society collects historical information about Quebec and Acadia settlers and their descendants. People like me visit to trace family histories back to the founders of New France and Acadia.