I wrote this piece for Ancestry Magazine in the Nov/Dec 2006 issue. Genealogy can be a very service-oriented hobby/occupation. I have seen stories like these repeatedly over the year. You can find this story on Ancestry's site at:
To give is to receive. At least that’s how it worked for Janice Lane.
When Janice first heard about Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) in 1999, she knew she would become a volunteer. What she didn’t know was that, eventually, helping others would help her, too.
In May 2006, a researcher looking for the Van Horns in Harrison County, Ohio, contacted RAOGK for assistance and was hooked up with Janice. It was really just a combination of chance and location, but Janice quickly realized that the researcher had the same last name as her own deceased grandfather—and held the clues to a line that Janice’s family was missing.
RAOGK is a worldwide, all-volunteer organization helping family historians obtain research results that would normally be unattainable due to time and travel. On an average day, the organization’s website www.raogk.org lists over 4,000 volunteers by location. And each volunteer agrees to look up information for other family historians for free (except the occasional expense like postage, copies, or parking)—absolutely no financial gain.
Bridgett Schneider, an administrator for RAOGK, says that most volunteers start as requesters. Norma, for example, a volunteer in California, signed up after an RAOGK volunteer in Illinois braved the snow to help Norma get photos of family gravestones. Now Norma is giving back and reaching out—she even helped someone in Denmark find family ties to Long Beach via local death certificates and obituaries.
Whether it’s karma, serendipity, or just plain luck, helping people find their roots is rewarding for just about everyone—Janice Lane in particular, whose volunteer efforts netted her a slew of new family members. “Because I volunteered to do lookups in my hometown, we now have a whole branch of family we never thought we’d find—along with photos and other documents,” she says.
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