1.

E-mail before mail before telephone calls. If you are not doing a significant amount of corresponding with e-mail, you are wasting money needlessly. E-mail was made for genealogists. There are several progressive steps surrounding mastery of your e-mail.

The first step is learning how to access the program-how to activate the icon-which button to push. An intermediate step is learning how to use your address book-how to save names-how to use it to address the e-mail. You get more Brownie points when you learn to send attachments -especially GEDCOM files. Finishing school involves knowing how to create the little signature boxes you see at the end of some people's e-mail to you. This is where you advertise the surnames you are searching or your credentials or some trite but snappy piece of wisdom. (Many people avoid finishing school altogether.)

 2.

Salvage. What happens to the cargo on trains that get slightly derailed? Alternatively, the cargo on 18-wheelers that gently follows the trailer as it tips over an embankment? Well, a lot of it gets auctioned off and bought by the salvage people. You can save substantially if you shop at salvage stores for office products.

In my neck of the woods, we have a salvage store like one of those depot outlets. Most items are at least fifty per cent off the same item that is found in Wal-Mart. Fifteen years ago I bought a 'lot' of fan-feed computer paper. Several of the boxes showed evidence of water contact. Well, I might have lost fifty sheets per box but when I only paid five dollars a box for the paper (1000 - 1200 pages per box) I did not feel I got ripped off! It is my sole source of archival quality page protectors, photograph-quality markers, scratch pads, index cards, and vinyl binders. So go see if you can find a salvage store in your area...you can't lose.

Don't order every birth/death/marriage certificate belonging to family members. These records are exceptionally expensive. You might need some sort of certificate to get vital information but otherwise, ordering these documents is superfluous. Well, let me add sentimental value as a possibly valid reason to purchase a certificate. Fortunately, several states have microfilm or hard copies of their indices. Purchase only the certificates you absolutely need.

Forget a quest for the latest software. Forget trying to buy software from a vender you think will be in the business for a long time to come. Genealogy-based companies are merging like bugs on windshields. There is no telling if your software will exist just six months down the road. So, don't try to keep up with the latest version of a particular software. It will do no good. Instead, buy software that supports the latest common protocols like GEDCOM.

Next, evaluate whether or not you need a 5000-megahertz processor to handle your family records. You need a system that will handle all that you need...not have all the power a rocket scientist would need to send an ion-propulsion satellite through the galaxy. As you might concede, the processing power and capability is much different for these two tasks.

Don't buy books when you only need a few pages of information. Find the book in the library and introduce the pages to the photocopier. If you find a book that you must have then go to a used bookstore or contact a book dealer to see if the book can be located. If you use a bookseller, expect to pay more than if you were to amble into a used bookstore. If you check on the listservers for a surname group or cultural group as the one you seek, put out a message that you would like to get a photocopy of a particular book. I have made copies of copies I owned and forwarded them with a bill for the cost of printing. I have also sent money for others to copy chapters or books for me.

Don't buy films/fiche that you can rent dirt cheap. If you can't get a certain film from inter-library loan to your public library, go to the family history center. If it is on film, the FHC probably can get it from their main library. And the rental for such films is really dirt cheap-meaning you can buy a good bag of potting soil for the same price!

Think "archival quality" -- its cheaper than having to do something over again. Yes, archival quality material does cost more that the non-archival material up front. The savings, however, is after several years when the cheap stuff starts to crack, fade, bleed, or just meltdown.

One of the foremost items I can think of is paper that is archival quality. You may see a statement in a book that indicates that the paper is archival quality. That means that the paper will last without cracking apart or allow the ink to separate from the paper. For example, if Uncle Joe writes his life history on partially recycled paper in a spiral bound tablet; your time to peruse this document is very limited because the paper will ultimately begin to flake off while the ink bleeds into the fiber.

You might notice the difference in a book printed in 1940 and one printed in 1880. The older book will probably be in much better shape because of the quality of paper and ink used. In another instance, how many photographs have been lost to those famous magnetic photo albums? The plastic sheet used in those albums is anti-archival in nature.

The bottom line is if you want to preserve your family history documents and photographs, save them in archival-quality materials. You can ask your local office warehouse staff where they keep these quality materials. If they do not know what archival quality means, go ask someone else.

Don't subscribe to journals where you hope someone will write something pertinent to your own research. If you think that an ancestor might be mentioned in a society newsletter or journal, go to a library and check. Pouring money into a subscription that might help you in your research is like buying many extra orders of French fries to see if you really won something on the peel and scratch decal on the food container.

If you simply must have a four-door model cabinet, don't go to "Wally World." First, check your Sunday paper for auctions. Auctions are very neglected sources of office supplies. But do not wait for an office supply auction. Most auctioneers might advertise that the bulk  of the auction involves something totally unrelated to genealogy. But, auctioneers also like to unload stuff from previous sales. On one occasion ten microfiche readers were bought at an auction which was advertising exercise and gym equipment. Go to an auction and you'll never just wish you had a file cabinet.