And Yes, I Do Need Money
Like any hobby or passion, there can be enormous expenses involved in it’s pursuit. I have paid for numerous DNA tests so that I can build a base of “known cousins” in order to find and match lost branches. I have paid for books, monthly fees to records databases, hosting and building this website, etc. I don’t expect any compensation for this and I guess I am grateful my hobby has a reasonable financial outlay compared to something like collecting Faberge eggs, mountain climbing in the Himalayas or other exotic pursuits.
What I do want to share with you, and hopefully enroll your support in, is a new project I just started. Eager to find information about my mysterious grandfather Harry Spiel and his brother Morris, I’ve setup a project through JewishGen.org to transliterate the 14 documents I have so far received from a Ukrainian archive after purchasing them a scanner so that they have the ability to digitize their records. Some are in such fragile condition after an intentional fire in 2003 burned another archive to the ground. Records were saved although many are damaged as you can see from this photograph. It’s critical to get these documents scanned and translated before they deteriorate further. In order to do that, I will need to hire translators that are able to read old Russian handwriting and be able to work at putting this data into spreadsheets for addition into a computer database. Several skills are involved here.
If you’re interested in supporting this project, you can access it at this link to JewishGen. My project is the third one down on the list titled Bar, Ukraine Records Project. Your generous donation is fully tax deductible and no donation is too small. Should you donate, please send me a note so that I can add you to my list of supporters and properly thank you. I appreciate all your support.
