Most articles are the by-products of private client research. Professional genealogists after doing their research can ask (and sometimes it is pre-written-into the contract) that the results will be published somehow. This works to the advantage of advertising the genealogist and sharing the work with others.
I don't do that. With the exception of one article, all of my work has been on my own family. I descend in some way from all the people I've written about. The one exception was an article to provide the maiden name(s) of two women I found in a will while researching a family I did descend from. I have what some might call a prodigious memory and remembered that the family in question had been treated in the Register within the last ten years.
So, when I say I didn't get paid, I'm not kidding. The only client is me. And that was fine since I worked as a librarian anyway. I've turned down many requests to do private client work.
So, the really funny part of some of this, and apropos of a comment that came in today, I really never break down my own brick walls. It's true. I redid the entire Yeaton family for five generations just to figure out my Sarah Yeaton who married Jonathan Heard in Rochester. And I was left with a 50-50 split between two families. Maybe 51/49 since I actually had to decide where to place her for the article.
Same thing with the Pinkhams. I did successfully place my Thomas in the family correctly despite the negligence of Mr. Sinnott and his 1908 Pinkham Genealogy. However, I cannot prove Thomas's mother's maiden name. I'm pretty sure I know it and know who she was, but I'll never be able to prove it.
So even though the articles may help other people, in the end, they didn't do much for me. Except aggravate me. I really can't put into words how much I despise the Yeaton family. And I can see the Wallis family is just the same sort of family. Over the next few weeks I may indulge (since I've hauled up the files from the basement) in relooking at this family. The first step is to transcribe a very important deed which the good folks who wrote the Genealogical Dictionary of Me and N.H. misread. Yes, the Wallises do not start out auspiciously.
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