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From: Jeanette Daniels <>
Subject: Re: [TGF] When do you start the clock?
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 06:52:24 -0800 (PST)
References: <mailman.8242.1267415726.2663.transitional-genealogists-forum@rootsweb.com> <a06240808c7b1797d2aa1@[192.168.1.2]>
In-Reply-To: <a06240808c7b1797d2aa1@[192.168.1.2]>


Jillaine,

This is why I work by the hour and not by the job. In genealogical
and any other type of research, it is impossible to predict how much
time doing the job will take. You aren't doing anything wrong.
Since this is your first job for pay, you didn't know yet what your research
pace was in the records that you were familiar with. When you worked on
your own genealogy, there wasn't a stop-watch letting you know how long
you were really taking.

Jeanette



----- Original Message ----
From: Jillaine Smith <>
To:
Sent: Mon, March 1, 2010 7:14:46 AM
Subject: Re: [TGF] When do you start the clock?

Glad to see that this subject header is still generating responses.

Remember me mentioning that I got my first paid genie gig?

Well, it's turning more into a learning experience than a
revenue-generating experience.

I am HUMBLED by the amount of time it is taking me to pull all the
records together and this is from a set of films with which I am
REALLY familiar. I did not think it would take so long. My steps are
these:

1. Working from a printed pedigree of what is known so far (with
blank boxes for what's missing), I then:
2. Find the records for each of birth and marriage (I'm holding off
on deaths for the "moment").
3. I copy the page to thumb drive, placing each record in an
appropriate folder: Births or Marriages.
4. I repeat #2 and #3 until I have all that I need. (Or at least for
some number of people on the pedigree sheets; i.e., I do this in
batches, then get some sleep.)
5. I take one pedigree page and for that page, I print out each of
the birth and marriage records for the people on that page.
6. I write (on the back; yes, I know, we've talked about this before,
but this is what I'm doing) the citation, the name of the electronic
version of the image, and then a translation of the information in
the record (these are 18th century German church records).
7. I group all these together with the pedigree page, then go on to
the next pedigree sheet.

Doing #5-7 for a single pedigree page (3 generations) took me MOST OF
THE DAY! That's insane. I can't possibly charge for that many hours
for one of at least ten pedigree pages. Steps 1-4 took me about a
full day, but I have all (or at least most of) the images I need for
ALL the pedigree pages.

What am I doing wrong? And how might I make this more efficient?

Thanks.

--
~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~
Jillaine Smith - Bethesda, Maryland
www.jillainesmith.com (professional)
www.werelate.org/wiki/User:jillaine (collaborative research)
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jillaine (personal research)

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