PLACE AN ORDER
I received a lovely email a few weeks ago from a client who told me that as a result of his research he had discovered who he really was. He was the “Letter of the Month” in the Australian Family Tree Connections magazine, and he kindly mentioned how our Researcher Connect service had helped him.
Here is part of his letter:
“I would not be here today if I had not allowed Marilyn Rowan (Transcriptions NSW) to share my name and contact details with others researching the same families. As a result I had a call from a lady whose father turned out to be my first cousin! At that stage I was unsure of my connection and did not have sufficient proof of who I was. This lovely lady…said that she could arrange for me to be DNA tested… To cut a long story short, her dear father (my first cousin) aged 90, had a DNA test with me, which was 99.994% compatible. As a result I am positive of my family connection.”
It’s one of many lovely stories we’ve heard over the years from clients who have been able to benefit from our free Researcher Connect service.
In a nutshell, Researcher Connect is an initiative by NSW Family History Transcriptions to assist family history researchers by putting them in contact with others doing family history research on the same people. It is a free service when you order from NSW Family History Transcriptions. It’s our way of helping our clients further in the quest to discover their genealogy.
It works like this:
When you order a NSW Birth, Death or Marriage certificate transcription, we check to see if anyone has ordered the same certificate before. The “matching” is based on the reference number of the certificate ordered. We then email each person who has ordered that same certificate, and ask if we can pass their details on to the others. Once we receive their permission, we then pass their details on to the other researchers.
Of course, some researchers choose not to make contact, but many do.
Deciding whether to share your research can be a big question for many people, but there can be huge benefits in swapping information and making contact with far distant cousins. Many years ago I was able to contact my great-grandfather’s niece through doing family history research. Meeting her solved a long-mysterious family tale of shotgun weddings, name changes and half-truths mangled with the passage of time. But that’s a story for another day!
