Like many genealogy enthusiasts, you may looking for a way to turn your passion into an extra source of income. One approach is to offer fee-based genealogy record lookups. This presentation describes Genlighten.com, a web application that makes it easy for you to offer lookups from the genealogical repositories near you.

1. Turn Your Passion for Genealogy
into a Source of Income
Offer Genealogy Lookups through Genlighten.com

2. 1.0 Introduction and Overview
Are you a skilled family history researcher with convenient access to nearby genealogical records?
Do you enjoy helping fellow genealogists break through "brick walls?" Would you like to add to
your income by providing record lookups for fellow genealogy researchers? If so, we invite you to
become a lookup provider with Genlighten.com.
What is Genlighten.com?
Genlighten is an easy‐to‐use website connecting genealogy enthusiasts with people like you ‐‐
experienced researchers who can help them find the source records they’re looking for. We’re
building a human‐powered search engine for genealogy records. We’d like you to be part of it!
What’s a lookup provider?
Lookup providers specialize in fulfilling well‐defined requests for specific genealogical records
from local repositories. In return, they charge a fair but moderate fee to cover both the time and the
expense involved in locating the record and providing a copy to the client.
What qualifications are we looking for?
While you needn’t be a certified professional, we’re looking to recruit researchers with:
experience in tracking down key source records.
convenient access to genealogical record repositories (such as historical societies, government
archives, family history centers, and cemeteries).
the ability to turn around straightforward, well‐defined requests within a week.
confidence in scanning original documents to produce quality digital images.
a commitment to friendly and positive customer service.
What does Genlighten.com do for you?
Our site offers you:
A high‐quality web presence from which to offer your services to interested clients.
A customer rating system to help you differentiate yourself from other providers.
Secure, hassle‐free online payment processing via credit card or PayPal.
A simple interface to help you create offerings, manage requests, and deliver documents.
The chance to earn added income doing something you both care about and are good at.
How do we make money?
We charge lookup providers a set percentage of the lookup fees they receive from clients as a
commission. This commission pays for marketing and search optimization efforts that help bring
traffic to the site and that enhance the income providers earn. It also covers site hosting, support
and administrative costs. The default percentage we charge our providers is currently 15%.
Do you have to pay to offer lookups through the site?
No. We don’t charge any listing fees, just the commission mentioned above. As a result, there’s no
risk to you in offering lookups through Genlighten. You pay us only when clients pay you.

3. 2.0 G
Genealogy
y Lookup
ps for Fun
n and Prof
fit
At this po
oint you migh ht be thinkin
ng “That sounnds great, but can I actuallly make mon ney providin ng
lookups?” Not to worr ry. We’re aboout to explain how you ca an. First thou
ugh, we needd to say a littl
le
about wh here lookup p providers fit within the genealogy ressearch marke etplace.
Most genealogy enthu usiasts tend t
to rely on tw
wo main sourc ces of help in
n tracking do
own documen nts
they arenn’t able to find themselves:
nteers from local societies, libraries, m
volun message boar rds, or free w
websites like USGenWeb.
profe
essional gene ealogists.
Some volunteers will look up reco ords for free, while many ask for a sm mall amount tto cover the c costs
or copies. Ce
of travel o ertified profe
essional geneealogists, on t
the other hannd, often cha
arge $30‐$60 0 per
hour or mmore for their services. Th hese two grooups represent opposite e ends of the g
genealogy
research cost spectru um, illustrated below.
Volunteers Professionals
• Societies, • APG members,
message boards, on
BCG certificatio
USGenWeb • $30‐$60+ per
st
• Free or low cos hour
Historicaally, there hav
ve been relat tively few op
ptions availabble in the midddle of this s
spectrum. Wi ithin
the last 4
4‐5 years, howwever, a new w class of fee‐
‐based genea alogical reseaarcher has em merged. These
researche ers don’t emp phasize the p painstaking pprocess of coompiling fullyy documente ed pedigrees for
clients wh ho pay by the hour. Inste ead, they focuus on retrieving specific rrecords, oftenn for a fixed fee,
letting cli
ients draw thheir own con nclusions fromm those reco ords.
These gen nealogical paara‐professio onals performm well‐define ed research t tasks often la
abeled
“documen nt pulls” or “
“record looku ups.” Most arre serious ammateurs who’ ’ve gained sig
gnificant
experienc ce researchinng their own n family treess and helpingg others withh theirs. In th
he process,
they’ve developed exp pertise and c confidence reetrieving speecific types of records from local
repositor ries. Many falll into the cat
tegory of “tra
ansitional” ggenealogists, pondering th he possible leeap
from hob bbyist to proffessional.
At Genligghten, we calll them “looku up providers s.” They’re no
ot expected t to produce thhe detailed
research reports that professionals do, but the ey’re held to a higher stanndard of acco ountability thhan
an unpaid d volunteer mmight be. The ey fit midway y on the costt spectrum between free or low‐cost
volunteer rs and well‐ppaid professionals.

4. Volunteers Lookup Professionals
P
• Societies, Provide
ers • APG members,
message board ds, • Docume ent BGC certification
USGenWeb retrieva
al focus • $30‐$60+ per
st
• Free or low cos • Fixed fe
ee hour
How Much Can Lo
ookup Providers Earn
n?
Because o of their para‐professiona al status, one might expec ct that lookup p providers w would earn o only a
small fracction of the t
typical hourly y wage paid to certified p professionals s. It turns ou
ut that isn’t
always thhe case. Let’ss consider twwo possible e examples. Both are fictitio ous, but repr resent compo osites
based on the experien nces of actua al providers.
Provider 1
Barbara l lives about 10 minutes fr rom a regiona al family hist
tory center in n a large met tropolitan ar rea in
the Midw west. This cennter has a str rong collectio on of local vittal records on microfilm. An index of
these records is availa able online. B Barbara char rges $7 to ret trieve a scan
nned image of a death
certificate when the c client supplie es the index e entry and cer rtificate num
mber. Because e of the
popularit ty of the reco
ords she can access, she ty ypically receeives 10 requ uests per wee ek.
Barbara t travels to the
e FHC each T Tuesday even ning, and because she’s ef fficient, she’s
s able to copy y all
10 record ds in about 440‐50 minute es. When she gets home, i it takes her aabout 30 min nutes to scan the
records, eenhance the scans in Pho otoshop Elem ments, and up pload them to o her clients on Genlighte en. In
a total of 100 minutes s, she perform ms $70 wort th of lookups s. After Genligghten’s 15% commission n, her
copying c costs, and gass for her car, , her net inco
ome is roughly $55. That works out to o about $33 p per
hour and a total of $220 per mont th.
Provider 2
William hhelps staff the genealogy room at a loc cal library 20
0 minutes fro om his home e. He’s becom me
proficient in using the e room’s reso ources, which include tra anscriptions of local chur rch registers, an
index of nnearby ceme etery records s, and verticaal files on a vaariety of earlly communit ty residents. On
Genlighte en, William ooffers to search the genea alogy room’s records for a a single indivvidual given t their
name and d a rough timmeframe for w when they liv ved in the are ea. He charge es $25 for a ccomprehensive
search thhat produces at least one relevant doc cument, but d discounts his s fee to $15 iff nothing turns
up. On avverage, he mi ight spend 20 0‐30 minutes s completing g a single lookkup, depending on how m many
records aan individual appears in.
Because h his communi ity is small, W
William only gets about tw wo lookup re equests per w week. He sav ves
them up a and does the em during lul lls at his twic
ce‐monthly v volunteer stin nt at the libra
ary. Typically y
two requests are succ cessful and th he other two o fail to yield a relevant reecord. William m thus comp pletes
$80 wort th of lookups s during his v visit. Consideering the copies he makes s and document scanning g
time, he sspends about t three hours s and earns a a net income around $60, , though the amount varies
more wid dely than in BBarbara’s cas se. William’s hourly rate i is smaller, peerhaps ranging from $15‐$25
per hour, , and he brings in about $ $120 per mon nth.

5. So it’s really that easy?
No, it’s not easy. But it can be quite fun and rewarding. You’ll need a unique combination of
persistence, divergent thinking skills, and empathy with the genealogical challenges faced by your
clients. If you’ve got those qualities, we’re confident you can earn somewhere between $15 and $30
per hour as a Genlighten lookup provider. You just need to:
live within 15‐20 minutes of a genealogy record repository.
have access to information‐rich records that clients will find helpful in their research.
be both detail‐oriented and efficient in searching, copying and scanning documents.
Naturally, “your mileage may vary”. If you live in a community with a low population density, you’ll
receive fewer requests. You may have to charge more per record or offer longer turnaround times
to make the trip to the repository worth your while. If the archive you visit charges expensive
parking, research or copying fees, the hourly amount you can expect to earn may be lower.
But you may also be able to do much better than either of the providers in our examples. If you live
near a statewide archive or some other centralized repository that holds records from multiple
counties, you may receive enough requests each week to fill a full day’s work, and earn an hourly
rate closer to $40 per hour, even considering the cost of gas and copies.
Why do I need Genlighten? How does it benefit me?
Genlighten is specifically designed to help you become successful earning added income as a lookup
provider. Here are some of the unique ways we do this:
Our site brings together thousands of lookup providers from all over the world in a simple‐to‐
use online marketplace. This approach creates a one‐stop‐shopping experience that draws
many more potential clients than a single provider could hope to attract.
By aggregating demand from hundreds of thousands of genealogy enthusiasts Genlighten helps
you receive enough requests to make the time and cost of frequent trips to the repository
profitable. This lets you offer fast turnaround times and allows you to set moderate prices,
further enhancing the number of requests you’ll receive.
We publicize the site in cost‐efficient ways, driving clients to your lookup listings that are
actively searching for the kinds of records you can provide.
Clients are encouraged to provide ratings and feedback on their experience with our providers.
This allows you to build a reputation for reliable and trustworthy service and helps you stand
out from competitors.
Genlighten saves you time by taking care of payment processing for you online, eliminating the
need to create invoices or deposit checks. And our digital document delivery approach saves
you the hassle of mailing paper copies.
We also offer both e‐mail and telephone support options so you can get the answers you need
and quickly resolve any problems that arise.

6. 3.0 How the Site Works
As a lookup provider, how will you actually interact with Genlighten.com? What does the site do to
make being a provider easier? To answer these questions, we’ll now offer a brief tour of the site.
Your visits to Genlighten.com will probably revolve around four basic activities:
1. Creating and maintaining your provider profile.
2. Designing and posting your lookup offerings.
3. Responding to client inquiries (both before and after they order from you.)
4. Uploading retrieved documents to the site in digital image form.
Provider Profile
When potential clients view your lookup offerings, they’ll be given the chance to visit your provider
profile as they consider whether to order from you. By default, your profile displays:
Your provider rating.
A listing of the lookups you offer, with links to each lookup’s “detailed description” page.
Specific feedback you’ve received from clients.
Statistics on the lookups you’ve completed.
If you choose to, you can add the following information about yourself to your profile:
A photo or avatar.
Your name.
A description of the localities, record types, or research areas you specialize in.
A brief “About Me” biographical sketch.
A list of the genealogical training/certifications you’ve received, relevant memberships, and
other experience that might help establish your credentials as a reliable lookup provider. We
will attempt to verify accreditation claims, where possible.

7. Creating Your Lookup Offerings
When you’re ready to begin offering a specific lookup through Genlighten, the site walks you
through the process of designing and posting your lookup listing. The basic steps are:
Select a record type (birth, death, obituary, cemetery, etc.)
Choose a locality covered by your lookup (preferably at the county level.)
Compose a “headline” or descriptive title for your lookup offering.
Give the year range covered by the records you’ll search.
Provide a detailed description of what you’ll do, what information the client can hope to gain
from the record, and what information you require to complete the lookup.
Set two prices: a “Document Found” price and a “Not Found” price.
Create a concise set of instructions to the client listing the data you need from them.
Preview your listing as it will appear, edit as necessary, then finalize it for posting on the site.
You don’t have to get everything perfect on the first try. You can easily edit any aspect of your
offering – the title, the description, the prices, the instructions – whenever you want. The site makes
your changes immediately. You can also set your lookup to “vacation mode” so it temporarily
disappears from search results when you’re out of town or start receiving too many requests.

8. Communicating with the Client
Genlighten is designed to make it easy for you and your clients to post messages to each other
without revealing your email address or other contact information. Here are some of the ways you
and the client might communicate as part of the lookup process:
Before deciding to order a lookup from you, the client might use the “Ask the provider a
question” feature to get more details. You’ll be alerted via e‐mail so you can respond via the site.
When you receive a lookup request, you can post a message to the client asking for clarifying
info. The client will then be notified so they can reply.
After reviewing the request, you’ll choose to accept or decline it. If you decline, you’ll send a
brief note explaining why. If you accept, you’ll give the client an estimated completion date.
Once you return from the repository, you’ll mark the request either “Document Found” or “Not
Found.” If you found the record, you’ll upload a scanned image to the site along with a source
citation. If you weren’t able to find it, you’ll post a brief summary of your search process for the
client’s records.

9. Uploading Retrieved Documents to the Site
One of the unique features of Genlighten.com is its all‐digital document delivery strategy. Instead of
mailing a paper copy of the records you retrieve to your clients, you’ll scan their documents and
upload digital images to the site for them to download. Though this adds an extra step for you,
we’ve found that clients love it, particularly if you take a few minutes to enhance the contrast of
their image before you upload it. Here’s how the process typically works:
You locate the record the client requested and make a paper copy.
When you return home, you scan the record at high resolution with a digital image scanner.
Using your scanner software, you give the image a unique filename and save it on your
computer.
You sign in to Genlighten and view the “Lookup Status Detail” page for the record you’ve found.
After updating the lookup status to “Document Found”, you’re brought to an upload page like
the one shown below.
You browse to find the file you saved and click “Upload”. If you have more than one image, you
can easily upload them all without needing to repeat the process for each image.
Referring to the guidelines in Elizabeth Shown Mills “Evidence Explained”, you provide source
citation information for the record you’ve retrieved.
When you’ve completed the record delivery process, you click the ‘Charge “Found” Fee’ button
to finalize the lookup and complete the payment authorization process.
If you’re unable to find the record requested by the client after a thorough search, the steps you’ll
follow are similar to those outlined above. In this case, you update the lookup status to “Not Found”
and upload a brief summary of your search process for the client’s records. You’ll then click on the
‘Charge “Not Found” Fee’ button to finalize the lookup.

10. 4.0 Questions You May Have
We hope you’re seriously considering offering lookups through Genlighten.com. Though we’ve tried
to offer a thorough overview of the site and its benefits, you’ve probably still got plenty of
questions. Hopefully we’ve anticipated a few of them in the list that follows.
Who controls the payment approval process?
As the provider, you do. When the client orders a lookup from you, they agree to your payment
terms. Once you deliver the record they asked for, you click the button that charges the client your
“Document Found” fee. When the charge goes through successfully, the client can view the
document. Similarly, if you’re unable to find the document requested, you upload a report of your
search then click the button that charges the “Not Found” fee.
How are disputes handled?
We ask clients and providers to attempt to resolve any disputes about the document delivery
process between themselves, or through the rating/feedback process. We make it clear to clients in
our terms of service that we do not offer a money‐back guarantee. In very rare instances we may
issue a partial refund to the client from Genlighten funds if it seems prudent.
What steps do we take to prevent fraud?
To protect both clients and providers from unscrupulous “bad actors”, we hold all client payments
in escrow for a period of one week after completion of the corresponding lookup. In the highly
unlikely scenario that a fraudulent “provider” was to attempt to collect client fees for uploading
random images, the client would report the occurrence, the funds would be withheld and both the
perpetrator’s account and the offending IP address would be blocked.
How do I get paid?
Our policy on distributing provider fees is still evolving, but here’s our current approach. Each
week, we look at the non‐escrowed balance in each provider’s account (i.e., fees they’ve earned for
lookups completed more than a week before.) If that balance reaches $100, we transfer the balance
to the provider via PayPal. If the balance is less than $100, we don’t make a transfer. We then check
the balance again the following week.
This policy is a result of the transfer fees we’re charged by PayPal. We hope to switch to a more
cost‐effective strategy as soon as our transaction volume allows. You can always ask to have us
transfer your entire balance to you immediately, even if it’s below our threshold. In such cases, we’ll
deduct PayPal’s fee from the transfer (currently 2%, up to a maximum of $1).
Do I have to sign an exclusivity agreement to offer lookups through Genlighten?
You don’t. All we ask is that you neither send our customers uninvited solicitations through the site
nor attempt to use Genlighten to advertise your non‐Genlighten business.
Who can access the document images I upload to the site and for how long?
As the site is currently designed, only you and the client who ordered the lookup from you have
access to the uploaded document image. Documents are stored on our servers for one year and
then deleted, but only after extensive warnings to the client. This policy may be changed based on
feedback from clients and providers.

11. 5.0 Is This For Me?
We’ve given you plenty of information to ponder about Genlighten.com. You now know how the site
works, what a lookup provider does, what skills they need and how much money they can make.
The questions that remain are probably the ones that only you can answer:
Do I have time for this?
Am I ready for the accountability that will come with getting paid for my work?
Do I have the patience to deal respectfully with the occasional difficult customer?
Will I be able to take as much pleasure in others’ genealogical discoveries as I do in my own?
If you can answer even a tentative yes to these questions, and you meet the basic qualifications
discussed earlier, then why not go for it? The worst thing that could happen would be that you
never receive any requests, in which case you can simply delete your lookup offerings and walk
away, without having spent a dime. If on the other hand you’re patient and persistent, and happen
to live near a key archive or travel to one frequently for your own research, you’ve got a great
chance to be a successful lookup provider. In the process, you’ll enable fellow genealogists to
experience the “happy dance” for themselves. We’d love to help you do that.
6.0 Contact Us
In case you have questions about Genlighten that you’d like to address specifically to one of the
founders, you can reach us in the following ways:
Mailing Address:
Dean Richardson
Genlighten.com
P.O. Box 893
Wilmette, Illinois 60091
E‐mail:
dean@genlighten.com
Corporate Blog:
http://blog.genlighten.com
Follow us on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/genlighten
Phone:
888.845.9990