Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) is a web-based

genealogical Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

research co-op that functions solely by the services of volunteers. Volunteers from any part of the world may offer services to any requester, such as research of birth, marriage, and death records,

public records Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government. For example, in California, when a couple fills out a marriage license application, they have the optio ...

obituaries An obituary (obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Acc ...

, and deeds. Some volunteers photograph burial sites, cemeteries and

tombstones A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, ...

. Volunteers also offer "lookup" services in various history and genealogy books, such as those books owned by the volunteer or books held in libraries and historical societies. Any fees requested by the volunteers are reimbursements for actual costs involved, such as gas mileage, photocopying, record fees, or postage. However, in most cases, the services are rendered free of charge in the spirit of offering a

random act of kindness A random act of kindness is a nonpremeditated, inconsistent action designed to offer kindness towards the outside world. The phrase "practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty" was written by Anne Herbert on a placemat in Sausalito, Cali ...

to a stranger in search of family ties. Thus the name of the organization came into being from the nature of the services offered. In 1999, the website was founded by two researchers, Bridgett and Doc Schneider, who saw the need for such a volunteer service in their local area. The small website grew very rapidly from being solely a statewide offering in the United States to an international global volunteer organization with some 4,300

volunteers Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

around the world and a staff of about eight, also volunteering their time. In 2007, more than 71,000 requests were handled by the system, 10% of them to volunteers outside of the United States. In October 2011, it was announced that the website would be taken down. Bridgett Schneider, the primary person behind RAOGK, died on November 12, 2011. Shortly before her death, she had a computer disaster. The site was down for three years. Schneider's husband, Doc, who helped start RAOGK, stated that RAOGK would come back online but the list of volunteers was unretrievable. Meanwhile, an unofficial RAOGK website, RAOGK wiki, offered a workaround while the official RAOGK site was offline. In January 2015, it was announced that RAOGK was online again. RAOGK has won many awards and has been featured in smaller local papers such as ''The Daily News'',

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, ''

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'',

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, and the ''St. Petersburg Times'', Florida, – as well as ''

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'' and ''

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'', for the unique service it offers to researchers. '' Family Tree Magazine'' named the site one of the "Best Big Genealogy Sites" in 2010.

References

External links

* * Unofficial websit
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness Wiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Random Acts Of Genealogical Kindness Genealogical societies American genealogy websites