Requesting a Lookup

Pinto Lake, Watsonville, CA.

    As one who did lookups in Santa Cruz County for RAOGK [Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness] over 6.5 years as well as in Santa Clara and San Francisco Counties using the microfilmed newspapers in the Santa Cruz Central Library for c1-2 years each, I certainly qualify as an experienced researcher. But there are some things you should do or consider first before requesting that I do a lookup.

    See if there's an active RAOGK volunteer for the county where the decedent passed away; if so, that volunteer will likely be able to do your lookup long before I get to the county involved. See my short-term route posted below; eventually there will be a separate post titled "Short-Term Route." But either will give you some idea of when I might arrive in the appropriate county; initially my Short-Term Route will be combined with my Long-Term Route. In some cases it may take several years before I even arrive in the state where a decedent died.

    Some Other Caveats. With one exception (Orange County, CA) I'll almost certainly skip the large urban counties. One of the problems is the cost of staying in RV Parks in those urban areas. Another is that there is a large overhang of unfilled lookup requests waiting to swamp any volunteer who offers to do lookups in large urban counties where no lookups have been done for some time.

    I've often felt that 3 or more friends with an interest in genealogy or members of a Genelogical/Historical Society might be able to absorb the initial tidal wave of requests if they divide the requests evenly. [Usually the first person listed in the RAOGK Search Engine for a given county gets most of the requests.] The second step is that one person stops doing lookups after 4-6 months, by which time the lookup requests should have diminshed to the point where fewer volunteers can handle the requests. And a second person withdraws in 8-12 months, leaving one or more persons to continue doing lookups as long as they wish.

    Yes, it would be nice if there were more volunteers willing to do obit lookups, but the majority of the volunteers these days prefer to take gravestone/headstone photos of decedents. While such photos can sometimes provide some missing information, an obituary provides much more info and and often paints a much fuller picture of that person.

    Another source of lookups used to be public libraries. But in many cases, especially here in California, libraries with budget problems (particularly the larger urban libraries) have had either to either stop doing lookups altogether or charge a fee to cover the time spent. (In most cases the librarian lookups are axed even if there had been charges to cover expenses.)

    Occasionally you may find a county GenWeb site where there are volunteers who will do obit lookups, but there're as rare as hen's teeth.
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    My Short-Term Route is posted below and will appear at the bottom of each post once I begin traveling again next week. If you wish to request a lookup, send that request to my Yahoo address (rglemmonjr@yahoo.com .) Include the following:

• decedent's name (include a middle initial if the name is a common one)
• his/her DOD (DateOfDeath)
• the POD (PlaceOfDeath)

    When I visit the library which has microfilm of a newspaper which ran an obit of the decedent, I'll transcribe it and mail it to you. I won't be able to send hard copies since that would require reimbursement -- and my mailing address will likely change several times during the next 7-8 years.
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Short-Term Route:
    T 18 Jan: Santa Cruz - Castroville Cem - Soledad Misson & Cem - San Miguel - King City;
    W 19 Jan: King City - Jolon - San Antonio Mission - Lucia - Nacimiento CG;
    Th 20 Jan: Nacimiento CG - San Simeon - Morro Bay - El Chorro Regional Park;
    F 21 Jan: El Chorro - San Luis Obispo - Pismo Beach - Lompoc;
    Sa 22 Jan: Lompoc - Solvang - Cachuma Lake Recreation Area.