If you have not run across the site Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) while searching your ancestors for free online, you are in for a real treat! The RAOGK has over 4000 volunteers who are willing and able to perform a variety of genealogy research tasks for free! The volunteers donate their time just to help out other genealogists. However, you are required to reimburse the volunteer for items such as postage, copies, or mileage, which seems only fair if someone is going to drive out to a cemetery and take pictures for you! Only recently did they allow volunteers to charge for mileage since fuel prices have gone up.
In order to find a volunteer, you have to go to the guidelines section at RAOGK about requesting a lookup. The guidelines tell you how to word your email request and what information to include in the request. Then you can see the list of areas that have a volunteer. First you start by selecting the state (there are some non-USA volunteers as well). Then you will see a list of counties in that state, the volunteer’s name and what type of information they are willing to find out for you. I just took a quick look at Missouri and there are a wide range of services available. From tombstone photographs, state census lookups, and public records lookups to obituaries, biographies, and church records, there is so much offered
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer for RAOGK, there are a few things you should know. You should live in the area of interest so you are near the records/resources and you are required to do at least one volunteer task a month. There is an extensive FAQ list found on the website here.
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness is a wonderful way for you to locate certain genealogical records from across the country. One of the really true ways of finding your ancestors for free. Top notch genealogy records researched for free – what could be better?? Knocking down a brick wall? Yes! Head on over to RAOGK today!
What’s become of Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness? For about 2 weeks, I haven’t been able to access the site. I get thrown back to my internet home page or get a page cannot be displayed message … with both IE and Ff.
Is it out of business? Has it changed its name? Is it just undergoing maintenance and down temporarily?
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If it’s gone, it’s sooooooooo sad for us genealogy researchers! I’d gotten soooooo much help from the the RAOGK researchers over the past number of years and MOST appreciative of their help in the localities where I needed research help.
If you know the answer to my question, please contact me.
Margie, I’m afraid I don’t know. I just tried to visit the site as well and it never did load for me. Hopefully they will be back online soon!