Most other people either play solitaire, do crossword puzzles, put jigsaw puzzles together, play computer games, remodel bathrooms, knit handkerchiefs or drink dry martinis while watching old episodes of Gilligan's Island to keep themselves distracted ;-). I find that genealogy easily beats all of those pursuits, hands down (except drinking dry martinis, which, of course, you can do while searching the internet for your 5th cousin, three times removed ;-). Plus, you actually produce something valuable and rewarding for all of your trouble (not that knitting a handkerchief or remodeling bathroom isn't rewarding, but I added those two pursuits after I wrote that sentence ;-).
I told Mrs. Y that all I needed in order to get started are the names of her parents and grandparents, and maybe her great-grandparents, as well as their birth dates and birth places. I always set this limit because, like a professional psychic, I like to start with as little information as possible. That way, it's more of a challenge for me and more impressive to the recipient when she or he sees what I've discovered.
To Make a Long Story Short (yes, how unlike me)...
In slightly over two weeks, and using only sources on the internet, I was able to add 505 names to Mrs. Y's family tree (counting the few names she had given to me to get me started). Mrs. Y had never known anything about her father's side of the family, so that is where I concentrated most of my work. Unlike the vast majority of people, she is lucky enough to be descended from and related to some prominent people on her father's side, including several state-level politicians (in three different states, no less), many wealthy businessmen, several rich land owners, lots of lawyers and judges, several Civil War veterans (on both sides of the conflict) and even a wealthy World War I flying ace whose plane was shot down over France just before the war ended. Last, but not least, she is descended from a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The various ancestors on her father's side came from Maine, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia/West Virginia and Kansas before settling in western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. It is very rare for a genealogical researcher to be able to research a family tree like that, so I had a lot of fun.
Unexpected Benefits
Mrs. Y was clearly thrilled (no fakery on her part), especially regarding the fact that her great-great-great-great-great grandfather had signed the Declaration of Independence (she even told everyone about my research during our April 15, end-of-tax-season party). She quickly offered to pay me for my time. I told her that my doing it at home had not been part of the deal, so she was, therefore, under no obligation to pay me. She didn't accept that answer, but I still didn't name an amount. So she told me to suggest a proper amount to our mutual friend, Mrs. L (it was Mrs. L who had convinced me to work there in the first place). I repeated this to Mrs. L the next day (and mentioned how many hours I had worked on it), but I didn't give her an amount either because I'm just not good at that sort of thing. Mrs. L, who also works for Mrs. Y, said she would think about an amount that was suitable. A couple of weeks later she told me that Mrs. Y sometimes buys things for people instead of paying them cash. That sounded intriguing, but I didn't have any idea what to have her buy for me. Mrs. L then reminded me that I had once expressed an interest in buying a miniDV camcorder.
That caught my attention. For the past two or three years I have been wanting a camcorder that also has the ability to convert VHS (analog) videos into digital (DV) format on the computer. No miniDV tapes required. This process is known as "passthrough." Then I could edit them in iMovie and export them to DVDs (while also keeping the original iMovie DV file as a master copy). Of course, I couldn't refuse a potential offer like that. She had found my weak spot.
I immediately started looking for a camera (preferably a Canon) that has the analog-to-DV passthrough feature built in. There used to be quite a few models that had that feature, but now it is extremely rare. I could find only one model still available, a Canon ZR 700, and it was in just a handful of online stores, with the cheapest price being $325. Even though that price was lower than the $400 plus price tags at the other places, I still considered it to be far more than I had earned for doing some genealogical research. However, I really wanted that camcorder, so I told Mrs. L that I would gladly do other work to make up the difference if Mrs. Y would buy it for me, because I hate ordering stuff on the internet in general, much less from an unknown company. Amazon.com, which I definitely know and trust, did not have that model in stock anymore (at least not a new model).
Well, it turns out that Mrs. L was wrong. Mrs. Y was not interested in paying me by buying something for me. Instead, she agreed to pay me $200 in cash. That's still more than I felt comfortable taking, but she seemed intent on paying me, and I had definitely put in a lot of hours of work on her family tree, so I didn't argue (I still haven't received it, though, and I won't be heartbroken if I don't). As for the camcorder, after having gotten my hopes up, I soon decided that I wasn't brave enough or "frivolous" enough to pay that much money to an unknown company. I decided I was just out of luck as far as owning a miniDV camcorder goes.
The Punch Line
Yesterday morning I had resigned myself to the fact that I would be borrowing an out-of-town friend's camcorder (actually, his classroom's camcorder) for a couple of months starting in June. Would I be able to get all of my home movies imported into iMovie in that time period? It could become monotonous fairly quickly if it is done on a tight schedule. Then yesterday afternoon I got on Amazon.com one more time, and -- low and behold! -- they had just "restocked" new models of the Canon ZR700! Even more amazingly, it is on sale for a measly $179.99! That's $146 cheaper than the price at the other online store and roughly $240 cheaper than its original price. I was very relieved that Mrs. Y hadn't wasted her money by buying it from that other store. I immediately added the camcorder to my shopping cart (I had bought a scanner from Amazon last August, so I didn't have to spend time registering).
When a frugal person such as myself buys something that quickly, you not only know that it is a great deal, but that it is something I really, really want!
I also decided that I had probably better make the best of this very rare online retail adventure by buying a few more items (we non-materialists just aren't interested in owning lots of stuff, so "retail adventures" are very rare for us; although I do frequently fantasize about owning a new Mac Pro Tower with four 1TB internal hard drives and a 30-inch monitor! also, a moped that gets 70 to 100 mpg). So, in addition to the camcorder, I also bought the following items:
1.) Two five-packs of miniDV tapes for $12.95 each (about $50 cheaper than I could buy them locally, or so my research indicates).
2.) One additional battery for the camcorder for $54.99 (highly rated by other users).
3.) Three additional rechargeable batteries for my Nikon CookPix 4300 digital camera for $14.86 each (I may have bought one too many, but I don't care).
4.) One new book (released just this week) for $12.60 called The Revolution: A Manifesto, which is receiving rave reviews. It's the first time I've bought a new hardcover book in many, many years (and the very first time that it wasn't on the remaindered shelf with a $3.00 price tag on it ;-). It is the first book of this genre that I have EVER purchased.
Happy Conclusion
I've been waiting for nine years (since iMovie was first released by Apple in 1999) to be able to import my roughly thirty home videos onto the computer, so that I can not only edit them to my heart's content, but so that I can also advance frame by frame in order to capture still images to add to my photo collection. Now I only have to wait a few more days for the camcorder to arrive. I just hope the quality of the imported video is what I expect it to be. If it isn't, well, then I will at least have a new wide-angle digital-video camcorder with which to capture the incredible number of exciting events that take place in my life every day ;-p.
Post Script
I started this entry with the statement, "...Sort of." By that I mean that I would have bought this camcorder in a heartbeat for $179.99 even if I hadn't done the genealogical research for Mrs. Y. However, the problem is that I wasn't even thinking of camcorders until Mrs. L brought it up. And, of course, she only brought it up because I had done that genealogical research for Mrs. Y. Therefore, if I had not done that research, I probably would not have seen this last "passthrough" camcorder before it was sold out and discontinued.
"Yay" for me for once!
