I don't know what others do but I only charge if it costs me. Photocopies etc. I am like you....how do you charge that many people? I host two counties in Nebraska. Hayes and Hitchcock Counties and I have found a lot of surnames that duplicate from Kosc. County to Nebraska. Would love to have lookups done for my Daniel family and related in the 1870 census. Would help me a lot on childrens names that I haven't gotten to as of yet. Would be glad to help anyone needing lookups in southwest Nebraska where I live. Brenda Daniel Kerry Butler wrote: > Hello- > > I now have the two 1870 Kosciusko Cnty Census films on order. They will > arrive in about three weeks. > > With the 1880 Wabash, Noble and Steuben county census last month, I > performed free look ups for people who emailed me. So far this has amounted > to around fifty heads of households plus the members within the house. > > I used a day of annual leave, over a few weeks, plus paid the loaner fees of > $3.50 each film (around $20 so far), to do this. > > I have a question for the discussion lists - Am I suppose to charge > (nominally) for this, or is it acceptable to offer these things for free? I > have no problem doing free lookups generally. If it becomes too much, I > don't do them. I look up my stuff first, then others'. As for the rental > fees, I don't know of any way to ask for people who want lookups for a share > of the cost - it is too small an amount of money for each person. A stamp > would exceed their share! Besides, I wanted to rent the film for my own > purposes anyway, not because anyone requested it of me. I would not of spent > less money, and only perhaps four hours of time less, if no one at all had > requested anything of me. > > However - am I undermining other people who do lookups for a fee as their > "side" or primary business? Should I ask for a share cost of the rental fee > for the films if I do other lookups in them? > > My inclination is to charge nothing, do whatever I have time for, and keep > an "account" of names to email in case I have a lookup favor they can do for > me in return some day in the future. I have no desire to bring money issues > into this hobby of mine. > > Please chime in with an opinion - I suppose to my private email address > below unless anyone thinks this is a wider discussion list topic - in which > case post to the list. > > Thanks. Kerry Butler. [email protected] > > ==== INKOSCIU Mailing List ==== > To UNSUBSCRIBE, address your email to [email protected] (or [email protected] if you receive the digest)