Genealogy Today LLC

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Acadian-Cajun Roots

Sample image of Acadian CD-RomToday we announced the online release of The Acadian-Cajun Family, a database of more than 1.2 million records developed by Yvon Cyr over the past ten years. Yvon is a remarkable person who, after enduring a lifetime of incredible challenges, remains committed to his heritage and helping others trace their Acadian ancestors. Being able to collaborate on an online offering of this information was a wonderful opportunity.

Read our press release, “Tracing Acadian-Cajun Roots for Genealogists“.

Labels:

Monday, March 20, 2006

Movin’ On Up…

We recently relocated our offsite storage, and it has made our lives so much better. The former 100 sq. ft. location has been replaced with a 300 sq. ft. space complete with shelving and two workspaces.

Running a small business, you’re always looking to cut corners. But what price can you put on efficiency? Time is a critical asset for a business owner, so anytime you can streamline a process, you should do it. It can free you up to work on other aspects of the business, which can generate more revenue.

The mail order business of Genealogy Today has been growing, and I finally realized that too much (unneccessary) time was being spent everyday fulfilling the orders. In the old space, everything was in boxes and if my memory lapsed even a little bit, I could waste upwards of an hour trying to locate a product. Plus, when there was a recent trade show, some of the inventory would still be crated up and in another location. And newly purchased inventory often would still be in my house waiting to be carted off to the storage space.

With this new setup, orders are fulfilled quicker and with less effort (and frustration). Customers are happier because they get their goodies sooner, and I’m spending less time away from my office — thus, I have more time to spend expanding our databases.

Don’t underestimate the ROI of expanding your company’s space. Factor in the time-savings involved with better organization, easier access and more clearly defined operational procedures.


Labels:

Thursday, March 16, 2006

BYU’s 2006 Computerized Genealogy Conference

click to enlarge The BYU Computerized Genealogy Conference was held from March 10-11 in Provo, Utah, and Genealogy Today attended (Room 2277, Booth #23) for the first time. This conference is designed to be a how-to guide for everyone, including beginning, intermediate, and advanced researchers. Pictured to the right is our booth (click on it to see an enlarged version of the photo).

Betty Lindsay (editor of GenWeekly) handled the Genealogy Today booth and gave the following report: “They have a pretty good-sized group at the conference. The parking lot has been completely full, and they have five simultaneous sessions going on at any given time. We had a good crowd on the first day. We went through almost three bags of the letter openers [giveaways]. The people coming to the table were quite interested to know who we were and what we had to offer.”

“Not many students coming through, although one of the vendors in our room is from the BYU computer science department (check out www.onepagegenealogy.com). I’ve also seen a few presenters, some of whom may be faculty. But mostly what I’m seeing is the average conference-goer, and quite a few Family History Center managers/directors, asking when we will have a library subscription option. We are also in the room with a new company, Acentra, and PedigreeSoft.com.”

The featured presenters for this conference were Curt B. Witcher and Alan Mann. Mr. Witcher is the department manager for the Historical Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And Mr. Mann is a manager of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

BYU also hosts a Genealogy and Family History Conference in August. This year’s theme is Strengthening Ties That Bind Families Together Forever.


Labels:

Monday, March 13, 2006

Get Inspired to Retire — Super Ideas!

Get Inspired to Retire: Over 150 Ideas to Help Find Your Retirement We received a letter on March 13, 2006, from Kaplan Publishing informing us that Genealogy Today was THE family history web site featured under the topic “Dig for Your Roots” (page 40) in a new book entitled, Get Inspired to Retire: Over 150 Ideas to Help Find Your Retirement. Authors David Saylor and Greg Heffington wrote, “Tracing a family genealogy is a legacy for your children, grandchildren, and great-granchildren. No matter how insignificant something sounds to you today, it may be invaluable to future generations.” Great advice! The ideas in this colorful guide will help you plan for and make the most out of your retirement.

Labels: