ROOTS & BRANCHES

People outside the world of genealogy often have no idea how specialized family history is.
True story: A long, long time ago I had a first date with a woman who, when we talking about upcoming travel, said in response to the fact that I was going to a weeklong genealogy conference: “Wow, a week on genealogy? That must be boring, the same lecture over and over.” (She did not get a second date)
But in actuality there are so many niches to family history!
One of my favorite ones to talk about is the community that Katherine Schober and her Germanology Unlocked brand have built up around the somewhat esoteric topic of the old German handwriting.
For the uninitiated—everyone ought to have at least one German line but I hear-tell that some people unfortunately don’t!—both handwritten cursive records and printed documents in German are difficult to read before the 1940s.
That’s because the handwriting forming the letters makes most of them strange to the English-reading eye and printing used a different font.
To the rescue of all this has come Schober, who began her business as a translator of German—she has a master’s degree in the language as well as an Austrian husband!—but has honed an expanding niche by offering a variety of products and services involving script and the German language more generally and its interface with genealogical research.
Schober still offers translation services—in fact, that part of the niche has grown to the point that she has four expert translators working for her—but her business now includes everything from courses, webinars and books to even offering a variety of “membership” packages:
• For books, she offers Tips and Tricks of Deciphering German Handwriting and The Magic of German Church Records: Finding the Key to Your Ancestor’s Past, both of which are good entry points for novice researchers.
• Her courses—from which she now has more than 1,500 students between them—are titled “German for Genealogists” and “Reading the Old Handwriting,” and she offers them as a price-saving bundle.
• Webinars are offered on a period basis and are drawing thousands of people.
• She also offers a variety of reference guides, articles, and videos.
And the Germanology Unlocked “memberships?” There are various levels available but the Premium or “Gold” one offers a weekly “Ask-the-Translator Hour” for advice from Germanology Unlocked’s staff on tough problems; there are 155 such members.
Schober’s also in demand as a presenter with topics on her specialties, as well as publishing an electronic newsletter that goes out to some 21,000 subscribers … proof of what a terrific niche she’s developed!

For more information on Germanology Unlocked’s products and services, go to the URL, https://germanologyunlocked.com/