The US census records are now on-line for the years between 1790 and 1930 (excluding 1890 that burned in a fire). There are several British Censuses on-line as well. With a subscription to several genealogy sites, such as ancestry.com, myfamily.com's People Finder and genealogy.com you can search to your hearts content. If you don't have the time or patience, I can do the searching for you. All of the censuses have indexes, some only for the head of the household. Some folks are easy to find in the census. They have unique names and the census transcribers managed to spell their name correctly. Others are nearly impossible to locate. I have found that about 1 in 4 people are not listed under their proper name. Others have such common names that you need to check a lot of records before you find the one you need. I have a good track record for finding those misspelled names. It takes a lot of perserverance and creative thinking to find where they are hiding. Let's see how many different ways you can spell Whartenby (Whartenby, Whortenby, Whartonby, Wartnaby, Wartnabe, Whartinby, etc.). You get the picture, and then you find him under "Khartonly". Ah yes, it should have been so obvious. This real example was a combination of bad penmanship and a careless transcriber. You can be sure that I did the genealogy happy dance when I found him! If you are easily frustrated, then searching through census records is not the task for you. I would be happy to look for you. I enjoy the search. You can have me search for one record or lots of records, census or otherwise. I will be happy to search for all the records available on-line for your relatives. I can also help you send for birth, marriage and death records (by snail mail).
Find Distant Cousins
I take the information from census records, obituaries, cousin interviews etc. to search for your distant cousins on-line. I use a variety of techniques and search engines. I comb directories, message boards, mailing lists and web sites in my search. If they are out there, I will find them. You can too. Or you can have me do the search. Once I find a likely prospect, I will e-mail or telephone them on your behalf. I will act as your personal secretary/emmisary, corresponding with your cousins, asking them to share what they know as well as inviting them to view what we have found. I create an e-mail address that is used exclusively for corresponding with you and anyone else regarding your family research. This is where they will send the photos of your family and any information that they have to share. When I leave a message on a message board, this will be the e-mail address I will use. It will be yours to keep once our research together has concluded. It will have all your newfound cousins addresses and messages. Once you have finished reading what I can do for you, please read the About Me section to learn why it is so important to contact your 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins.
Organize your Genealogy Data
Once you start finding information it is important to begin organizing it right away. If you don't, you end up doing the same research more than once. Even worse, you miss clues that will lead you to additional information. Charts are your friend.
When you discover that every generation has several people with the same name it will drive you crazy unless you have some way to sort them out. You'll be counting James Dilworths (insert your own family surname) in your sleep instead of sheep. If you aren't a naturally organized person, or don't have the time to sort through all the information, I can do that for you. I like to make charts.
Create a Family History Web Site
Once we start collecting census records, and creating charts it is a good idea to put that information on-line. Please note, for security reasons I don't put any information on-line about living people or include anything that would reveal their mother's maiden name. A web site is a great place to store all this information. Even more important, it is an open invitation for your distant cousins to find you. I can create large web sites, which include all the charts, data, photos, maps, and other miscellaneous items we've collected, or small sites with just the facts. The web site can be a complex site with links to your entire tree, or a simple, one surname web site. What you want and what we find will dictate how the site will grow. If you prefer to create your own web site with the information I find for you, that's fine too. I've created a variety of sites, each one quite unique. Links to examples can be found in the About Me section. You will also learn why I think it is so important to have a web site for the entire family to enjoy.
WHAT I CAN DO FOR YOU 
