How much have you spent.

[p.risboy]

Has anyone any idea of how much they have spent doing their family history.?
Does the money just slowly drip away without the other half noticing.?
What is the biggest expense anyone would be likely to pay in one hit.?

Do not include the time spent, no one could even guess that.

I do not expect to get 'honest' answers, just in case someone's looking over your shoulder.:biggrin:

Steve.

 

[JMR]

...being Yorkshire born and bred, not surprisingly I've spent very little on this hobby really. Much less than if I smoked or drank every day that's for sure!

I got a free 2 weeks on ancestry where I confirmed much of what my Dad and Mum knew about their respective families. Then I bought a subscription because I found it so worthwhile and I stayed with the lowest priced membership. I joined another couple of free sites and found wonderful people who go to the Bradford library and look things up for me when ever I need it and another wonderful person who lives opposite the cemetery in Bradford where all my lot are buried! She has taken lots of photos of blank spots where they were all laid to rest without headstones and emailed them to me.

I have a cousin who still lives in the area where we all grew up, who buys the odd certificates, scans them and then emails me a copy. I also have the wonderful lady I met online who is the Gt Gt Granddaughter of my Gt Grandmother's, step-father's, brother, who sends me all the parish records on-line and who also sends me copies of certificates by email. I find it really hard to reciprocate and the only way I've found so far is to post all the data from the certificates I'm sent onto a BMD share site in the hope that they may help someone else as well. I also send them restored family photos. I also found a cousin of my Mother's in Scotland on-line who sends me all the Scottish information and certificates and has her own contacts in Ireland who know where to get the Irish information.

I recently bought a subscription to Find my Past as my contribution, so that we can find out more from the 1911 census when it released later this year, but guess what? They all did too!

So I have offered a room to stay in at the beach if they want to come over here! So far I've had one taker and another on-line cousin coming in October. So for me cost minimal, benefits - priceless!

JMR

 

[duckweed]

At the moment I haven't spent a lot as I've been very lucky. I have a brother who looked up things for me when he had membership or one of the sites. He gave me a list of free sites and I found a few more such as this, the BBC Family Tree Site and Rootschat. I did a lot ofwork at the Archives and family history section of our Library. Then I found a cousin who was searching our branch and he gave me a whole lot of copies of certificates. I've bought about 7 certificates at £7 each. My brother gave me a free CD that had Family Tree Maker on. I got a couple of Freebie weeks from Ancestry in which I copied as many census records as I could in the time. Then I discovered that if I bought upgrade software to the Family Tree Maker there was a special price which resulted in me having an upgrade and 6 months Ancestry for half the price of membership. I've done that twice now. In fact this year it was actually a third of the cost. Eventually I will have to spend a bit more money as one of the Family names is almost as common as Smith and the only way to sort it is to buy certificates.

 

[jon attwood]

So far I have spent as little as possible, only using the free internet sites. (and using my father and grandmothers research)
Their main expenses has been ordering the occasional certificate, I didnt think they had spent much on these but looking through the evidence folder I find nearly 100 certificates, so it has mounted up somewhat!
I am considering getting a paid membership of ancestry, as at the moment I can not view original documents on there, that will bring the total up a bit more.
Then theres the petrol for those occasional trips to the family records centre in Plymouth, and further afield to Kew.
If I wanted to be really tight I could put part of the phone bill in there too (why ring relatives if your not going to ask a question about their history?)
Then theres paper, printer ink, wear and tear on my computer, pens and pencils etc etc, the list could go on for ages.
So what I thought was a nearly free hobby has turned out to have cost a quite substantial amount of money, albeit spread over 3 generations
probably still far cheaper than going to the pub once a week though!

Jon

 

[benny1982]

Hi

I would say that I have spent around £1000 since I became hooked to genealogy in February 2004, 5 years ago. Before that I was very keen since I was about 15 and am now 26.

Ben

 

[p.risboy]

Hi

I would say that I have spent around £1000 since I became hooked to genealogy in February 2004, 5 years ago. Before that I was very keen since I was about 15 and am now 26.

Ben

That seems quite reasonable Benny, around £4 a week. I must say that I was spending like a loony initially, but then I come across sites like this and soon realised some of the expenditure is totally unnecessary.
I put it down to over enthusiasm and ignorance.
Still spending, but more focused.

Steve.

 

[benny1982]

Hi

Genealogy is so addictive. I will no doubt spend more money on certs but if that is what it takes to build a detailed family tree then so be it.

Ben

 

[ritter]

...being Yorkshire born and bred, not surprisingly I've spent very little on this hobby really. Much less than if I smoked or drank every day that's for sure!

I got a free 2 weeks on ancestry where I confirmed much of what my Dad and Mum knew about their respective families. Then I bought a subscription because I found it so worthwhile and I stayed with the lowest priced membership. I joined another couple of free sites and found wonderful people who go to the Bradford library and look things up for me when ever I need it and another wonderful person who lives opposite the cemetery in Bradford where all my lot are buried! She has taken lots of photos of blank spots where they were all laid to rest without headstones and emailed them to me.

I have a cousin who still lives in the area where we all grew up, who buys the odd certificates, scans them and then emails me a copy. I also have the wonderful lady I met online who is the Gt Gt Granddaughter of my Gt Grandmother's, step-father's, brother, who sends me all the parish records on-line and who also sends me copies of certificates by email. I find it really hard to reciprocate and the only way I've found so far is to post all the data from the certificates I'm sent onto a BMD share site in the hope that they may help someone else as well. I also send them restored family photos. I also found a cousin of my Mother's in Scotland on-line who sends me all the Scottish information and certificates and has her own contacts in Ireland who know where to get the Irish information.

I recently bought a subscription to Find my Past as my contribution, so that we can find out more from the 1911 census when it released later this year, but guess what? They all did too!

So I have offered a room to stay in at the beach if they want to come over here! So far I've had one taker and another on-line cousin coming in October. So for me cost minimal, benefits - priceless!

JMR

Lucky you, a pity you are not searching for Dentons or Wrights. Then may-be I could ask you for imformation! I also do not live in the UK.