Comments on: Thought For the Day – Crowdfunding Genealogy

By: Elizabeth Khan

Elizabeth Khan — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:02:29 +0000

This is a fantastic idea! In fact, I suggest to clients, working on large projects, that they consider a crowdfunding platform to raise funds from the entire family.

I recently discovered another platform that I found interesting, and which I am thinking of somehow incorporating in our menu for clients!

There are so many useful applications to raise money for genealogy projects that could benefit a large group of people.

http://www.gofundme.com/

By: Dawn T.

Dawn T. — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:01:54 +0000

The Colonial DNA is an excellent idea though it would be a struggle to support more the one website or group given I have colonial ancestors in NY, MA, CT, PA and MD and that’s just the documented ancestors! Both FTDNA and Ancestry.com show numerous matches to lines originating in the Southern states which is completely dumbfounding given my only known connections to the south are my 7G-Grandfather’s brother and his family as well a few of the descendants of one of his daughters! Not one them has even one surname of the few families I haven’t been able to trace appear anywhere in those matches either.

By: Kathleen Brandt

Kathleen Brandt — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:29:20 +0000

Interesting timing on this post. On the 13th of February I appealed to the genealogy community to support this project on Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/624106288/slave-marriage-book?ref=live.

The goal is to preserve, digitize, index, and easy, free searchable access to the public. It’s aggressive, but with community support, possible.

Thanks for sharing Crowd-funding with the community.

By: Jacqi Stevens

Jacqi Stevens — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:26:23 +0000

I’ve already been exploring this idea with my family–although on a much smaller scale than your examples (such as documentaries). My college-aged daughter and a friend want to plan a road trip for their summer break. I suggested thinking of a useful project to embark on during their travels. Since my daughter has snapped some photos at cemeteries and uploaded them to sites like BillionGraves, I suggested coming up with a route that would allow them to continue the project in areas especially under-represented in the online cemetery sites. Old or abandoned historic cemeteries come to mind as an example.

This would require setting up an itinerary, drawing up a business plan, offering availability for sponsors needing photographs at out-of-the-way cemeteries, for instance, but would be a wonderful learning experience and hands-on practical exercise for someone like a college history major. Add to that regular blogging updates reporting on current progress, and mix that with the crowdfunding capabilities of the two websites you’ve already mentioned, and voila! Instant summer break material with a real-life application twist!

By: Doris

Doris — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 18:02:14 +0000

Funny you should mention this now… I’ve been toying with the idea because I have recently discovered someone who is a direct maternal line descendant from a woman whose surname has not been discovered, although we do have some possibilities. Since the woman whose identity we do not know was born about 1610 in England and died in Massachusetts in 1687, we’re hoping the FGS test might help us find one of the suspected surnames or, even better, someone whose own pedigree reveals our Mary’s family. I’m trying to develop a persuasive appeal that could be published in all the family-related sites, message boards, mailing lists, Facebook, etc.

By: Truthy

Truthy — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:51:16 +0000

I would love to crowd source ancestral DNA such as pilgrim ancestors.