News from George Morgan

Many of you recall the opportunity we had to learn from George Morgan at our 2007 conference. George has for a long time been communicating with the genealogical community through his "Along Those Lines..." column. However, in his latest posting he announced the discontinuance of this endeavor:

Dear Friends, Relatives, and Extended Family,

Many or most of you already know me. I've been working on my family genealogy since I was about 10 years old. It has been a wonderful and challenging addiction, and a wonderful part of my life. I would never trade the experiences, the people I have met, the places I have visited, the learning opportunities, and so much more for anything! I'm 55 now and have met many relatives, acquaintances, friends, and much closer people over the years. It's inevitable, I suppose, and I am richer for these wonderful experiences. Perhaps most important to me is the fact that, as the youngest of my generation and the one who missed out on meeting and knowing so many and so much, I have been blessed to become closer to my older brother (11 years and 51 weeks) and to cousins -- first, second, and more -- and to meet fantastic relatives more distant who let me into their homes, their memories, and even more.

I have been writing the weekly "Along Those Lines ..." columns for almost 14 years, first for "The Genealogy Forum on America Online" and then for Ancestry.com. When Ancestry.com was acquired by MyFamily.com, my weekly columns were no longer regularly required as the company wanted to provide a more diverse collection of writers, articles and columns. (This doesn't include a substantial reduction in per-article payments.) Don't get me wrong! I still write for the Ancestry Weekly Journal, for Ancestry Magazine, and have written three books for Ancestry Publishing (and am working on a fourth for them as I write this). I have always enjoyed being a part of Ancestry.com and the family of contract writers who work for them because I think that Ancestry Publishing is the créme de la créme of the genealogical publishing industry. I also am confident that their parent company, The Generation Network, Inc., is and will long be the leader in the genealogical services industry.

However, there are many other genealogical companies in business in the marketplace and it would be foolish for me not to work with, write for, and to participate in partnership with them. As you might see if you look at my company's Web site (http://ahaseminars.com) which will be changing after the first of the year, under Genealogy Publications, you will see that I've written for many magazines, online sites, society newsletters and journals, in the U.S. and around the world -- even in Singapore! The commercial publications and Web sites provide me with a source of some income, along with my seminar engagements with libraries, library consortia, and genealogical societies, and in library genealogical collecting consulting jobs. This is all very sweet, enjoyable work for me -- almost play in some cases.

In the meantime, I love to write and get a lot of positive feedback from readers at all levels. I have attempted to maintain the "Along Those Lines ..." blog here for a couple of years with articles to replicate what I wrote for Ancestry.com and, before that, for the Genealogy Forum on America Online. I am always humbly appreciative for the positive feedback.

As much as I regret it, I unfortunately cannot continue producing "Along Those Lines ..." as a free blog for the public. I continue to pay three sets of medical bills for the past three years -- even though I now am in excellent health. The bills, the insurance, and all the other expenses that have ballooned in the last 6-8 years have made it difficult to make ends meet. I know that many of you will and can identify with that -- increased gasoline prices, home insurance increases, property tax and utility increases, medical insurance and health costs.

It is with very heartfelt regrets that I have to announce that the "Along Those Lines ..." column will end with this installment. If I could afford to continue writing the column pro bono, I would. However, the reality is that I need to write articles for magazines, journals, and online venues for some kind of remuneration, and I need to be able to write books for the very small profits that genealogy books make.

I would love to hear from you, and to know if the column has had any impact, positive or negative, on you over the last 2+ years since it left Ancestry.com. My readers have always been my lifeblood, no matter whether the feedback was positive or negative.

Genealogy IS a wonderful addiction, and I sincerely hope that we will always meet at conferences and seminars. and that we will always help one another.

I send each of you, my dear faithful readers,
Much love!

George