The sign outside the Family History Library in Salt Lake City said “Find your family. Find yourself.” As I entered, I was a man on a mission. I had about one hour to see if I could find the names of Frederica Grothey’s parents. Rica, as she was known, was my maternal great-grandmother, and had died when my mother’s mother was only five. Her parent’s names were not known to anyone in my family and represented the only hole in that generation on my genealogical charts (yes, I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the years tracking down my relatives.)
I skipped the 8 minute introductory video for newbies and jumped right onto a computer monitor. Two minutes later, I realized that I had no idea how to search all the various databases offered so I raised my hand. Within seconds, a helpful staff member guided me through three databases and we identified several microfilms of the marriage and death certificates from Milwaukee County between the years 1896 and 1906.
It had a been over thirty years since I had actually looked at microfilm so I had to ask a fellow “hunter” how to thread & focus the old standby of archivists. Undaunted, I rolled away and eventually found the page that contained the listing of Rica’s marriage to Henry Heller and pointed me to another book that actually contained their marriage certificate. After a few more minutes spent tracking down another microfilm, I was scrolling through the volume after volume when I found it. Sure enough, Henry Heller married Rica Grothey on April 1, 1899, and her parents were listed as Louis Grothey and Lizzie Aschhoff of Columbus, Ohio. Eureka! Bingo! High fives all the way around!
I thanked the librarian who had given me the critical guidance and sailed out of the library like Sherlock Holmes, smug and quietly thrilled another mystery had been solved. Since there is no rest for the weary, it was time to get back to work. Time to think about how I could help Renegade clients capitalize on the principles of Marketing as Service. And then it hit me. The Family History Library, offered by the Mormon Church, is one of the quintessential examples of Marketing as Service.
Founded in 1894, the Family History Library’s original purpose was to help members of the Mormon Church with their genealogical research. Now the largest facility of its kind in the world, the Library helps 2,000 people a day track down their relatives for free. This kind of service generates enormous goodwill and opens up the possibility of a dialog between someone searching for their roots (if not their spiritual connections). There is no proselytizing that I could see and according to this informative blog post, several of the volunteers in the library are from faiths other than Mormon. Like other great examples of Marketing as Service, the connection back to the “product” is relevant yet subtle and there are no hard sales pitches–they simply offer an extremely helpful service that opens up the opportunity for a deeper conversation if someone asks.
Now if any of you know anything about the Grothey and Aschhoff families of Columbus, Ohio circa 1870, feel free to let me know.