Genealogy Budget

[Sian]

I do genealogy (I actually have the job of being the Family Historian on one side of my family). I've never had a budget for it. This budget would include things such as getting paperwork, buying software, purchasing ancestry.com membership, plus the one-time DNA test that I've wanted to do for years.

This budget doesn't include trips. That is a different budget in and of itself.

I was wondering if there is anyone that does genealogy and what their monthly/quarterly/semi-annual/annual budget is.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I poke around with it a little, mainly to help my Dad find new resources as they come online. So, I have spent only time, not money. If I were going to spend money, it would probably be to have some documents and obituarial cards translated.

[edg126]

Once a year or every other year I sign up for a month on ancestry.com and see if there's any updates.

[Like2Plan]

Sian,
I do genealogy, too. I generally use my discretionary "allowance" for my research.
I give DH a subscription to ancestry.com for Father's Day each year (but we both use the subscription ).
Last year, I was ordering certified records and that gets expensive pretty fast--I had to pace myself ordering a few each month.
DH and I have done seminars at the National Archives (but that only costs us parking and lunch). We've also done The Old Planter's Reunion--something put on by the Beverly Mass Historical society every 2 years.
When we were at the National Archives looking up some civil war records, I noticed some folks had laptops and portable scanners for copying records. (DH and I had iphones-- ). It would be nice to get some good equipment.
I would like to do much more traveling in the future. My ancestors moved around quite a bit, so I have a lot of places to visit (from east coast to west coast) to get more info.

As far as budgeting for trips and so on--it is whatever $$ is extra.

[FrugalDad123]

Hi,

I don't do genealogy, but I do like helping people think about and visualize their budgets. It feels therapeutic for me and helps me feel like I'm not alone poring over my own budget. So... I'm all ears.

I'm curious. What are reasonable estimates for...:

Ancestry.com membership -- $159 annually? (I googled that)
certified records cost each $__.__ * X how many per year/month?
One time DNA test -- $__.__ one time
A trip to National Archives $__.__ how often?
various documents and obituarial cards translated $__.__ how often?

Let's see if I can keep this list going for us and let's see if people would like to join in and add line items or populate the list with estimates for us.

Regards,
FrugalDad123

[Like2Plan]

Ancestry.com membership -- $159 annually? (I googled that)

$155.40 will cover the US--at some point an upgrade to World subscription will come in handy ($300.00 annually)

certified records cost each $__.__ * X how many per year/month?

This varies by state. You may not able to get certified records for every individual. I have spent as little as $5.00 per record to as much as $20.00 per record. Consider that for every generation you go up, the number of records double. There can be up to 5 records per couple--depending on how far back in time you are going-they may have passed on (2 birth, 1 marriage and 2 death).

I didn't order this one, but a cousin paid $70.00 to order a record from Germany so I believe international records can get pretty expensive.

One time DNA test -- $__.__ one time

I think I saw special pricing of $99.00 at Ancestry.com. But, not so fast! They have many different types of DNA testing. And, for more accuracy they recommend you test more members of your immediate family. So, it could end up costing more than $99.
Here is the explanation in Ancestry.Com:
Your DNA is inherited through the generations. Half of your DNA is inherited from your mother and half from your father (roughly). However, each half is variable and can result in many unique combinations. Your parents inherited their DNA from their parents and passed portions of that DNA down to you. So when you factor that out over a few hundred years, you may share little or no DNA in common with a certain ancestor. So let’s say your father is half Italian, you could (in theory) inherit anywhere from fifty to zero percent Italian (based on the random shuffling of DNA with each generation). When you take that into account over a few generations you can see how traces of ethnicity can be lost over time.

So if you look at your family tree, it may indicate a pedigree-based ethnicity of 30% English, 20% Scandinavian, and 50% Italian (based on birth locations of your great-great-great grandparents). While this is one valid way to look at ethnicity (and in fact has been the only way until recently), DNA analysis can reveal the actual percentage of your DNA that is reflected by these ethnic groups. So your genetic-based ethnicity might reveal you are 40% British Isles, 15% Scandinavian, and 45% Southern European. Both measures are accurate and informative—but they are measuring different things.

various documents and obituarial cards translated $__.__ how often?

Ordering Obituaries from newspapers. I have paid between $2.00 -$5.00 (I've only order a couple so far). It's hard to predict how many.

[FrugalDad123]

Very cool, Like2Plan! Thanks!

Sian,
Here's what we have so far (Oh, and I only can plan one year at a time for now.):

Ancestry.com membership -- $155.40 annually? (and let's say we go to the $300 version midyear.)
certified records cost each -- Let's say we start at four couples then double each time for four generations. That'd be 4 then 8 then 16 then 32 = 4+8+16+32= 60 records times say $30 = $1800
One time DNA test -- If $99 is special pricing let's just play with a number like $115 one time
A trip to National Archives $__.__ how often? (I don't know where this is so for today we'll skip it.)
Ordering Obituaries from newspapers -- say $10 say twice a year

If we just add it up it'd be $300 + $1800 + $115 + $20 = $2235 for a year. Wow, that's neat! I've never imagined that before. Genealogy.

If we plug some hypothetical dates and spending frequencies then a year's cumulative spending scenario could look kinda like this.

That was cool. I feel like I've learned a bit about something here and got my mind off of work. Thank You! I'm all ears if someone wants to input more expenses for this scenario.

Best Regards,
FrugalDad123

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

In the early 1990's my friend paid contacts in southeastern Europe to find records and translate them. What was found is still not online. She's pretty sure some of it has since been destroyed (war), so her recorded info now may be the only remaining source. I wish I could tell you how much she paid. I remember thinking at the time that it was expensive.

The translating I would consider hiring out is not of a modern language or script, so I could not just run it through Google Translate or go to a university and ask a student. None of these records are terribly old; I think about 1860 at the oldest. Evidently languages can fall into disuse pretty quickly. However, I think many speakers of a related language could get the gist of it. Heck even I can figure out some of it. But I would not be surprised to pay $50-$75 for a short translation, say 10-12 lines.

[FrugalDad123]

Thanks, Joan.of.the.Arch!

Sian,
I've added the translations, say at $70 each 2X, quarterly.

Now it's looking like this:

Ancestry.com membership -- $155.40 annually? (and let's say we go to the $300 version midyear.)
certified records cost each -- Let's say we start at four couples then double each time for four generations. That'd be 4 then 8 then 16 then 32 = 4+8+16+32= 60 records times say $30 = $1800
One time DNA test -- If $99 is special pricing let's just play with a number like $115 one time
A trip to National Archives $__.__ how often? (I don't know where this is so for today we'll skip it.)
Ordering Obituaries from newspapers -- say $10 say twice a year
Translations -- say $70 X 2, quarterly
If we just add it up it'd be $300 + $1800 + $115 + $20 + 560 = $2795 for a year.

On a timeline it might look like this.

Peace,
FrugalDad123

[snafu]

Sian, since you are 'Family' Historian, I wonder if others in the extended family would be willing to help with the expense. Rather than spending for your birthday or holiday gifts, family could use those funds to help pay Ancestry membership. Many of us have hobbies/craft and work the cost into the budget as a category of it's own or part of other costs like vacation or education. This is a long term project and sounds so worthwhile.

[Sian]

@snafu: I've brought it up at the last family reunion I attended in 2011. unfortunately I wasn't able to carry out with the family on that because I immediately joined the military one month later and when AIT was through I was sent to Afghanistan. so it's been approximately 1.5 years after... so I will have to re-propose this to the family during the next family reunion.

@everybody:
I am mainly of African descent but I also have Native American and Caucasian ancestors so I will mainly be U.S. Discovery membership.

annual membership: $155.40


ironically I had to get a new hard drive and it's been 1.5 years since I've last used my software. so when I re-installed it, it gave me free membership to ancestry.com for 6 months.... go figure. there wasn't a way for me to tell it that I've done this before... soooooo I feel like a fraud lol. all it did was say to register it so I did. once I had done that then it stated that I had the free membership... oh well.

[Sian]

it's fun and I enjoy. been doing it since I was 15yrs old and i'm currently 36. it's a way to keep our family history.

I've learned a lot and i'm trying to record stories. since I've been gone for the last 1.5 years more of my elders have passed away. there are 2 people that I want to interview. my great great aunt who is 98yrs old. and there is another elder I want to interview who isn't directly related to me who is 103yrs old.

btw, a camcorder is really beneficial when doin this.

[boefixepa]

I can not say I do much of this, but I know people who do. Most of them are Mormon or LDS and they have a HUGE internet based system to help people. You might check out their web site and see if what they have could assist you and most of it is no cost. They have local genealogy libraries with people trained to assist you if you are close to one. This looks like a good web site to start at.

https://www.familysearch.org/

Good luck!!