How did you turn your passion for genealogy into a business? How did you first get started? How did you find clients? Set your rates? Keep things organized?

Share your experience and tips for those who are either considering or just getting started with genealogy as a profession. A little free publicity is okay here too! You're invited to share a little about your genealogy business (including URL) as well.

Ancestry.au launched a huge new index this week to Australian BMDs, comprising nearly 15 million records between the years 1787 and 1985 (births only to 1922 and marriages only to 1949). The searchable database was compiled from microfilmed birth, marriage and death indexes taken from record offices and registries from across Australia, with the exception of the Australian Capital Territory. While some of these indexes and/or the original records are already available online, this is the first database that combines birth, marriage and death data from across all Australian states in one place and format.

The new Australia Birth, Marriage and Death Index is searchable by:

• Birth: name, birth year, father's name, mother's name and birth place
• Marriage: maiden name, spouse name, marriage year and marriage place
• Death: name, death year, birth year, father's name, mother's name and death place

It is available as part of a subscription to Ancestry.au or a worldwide subscription to Ancestry.com.

It's fun to sit on my couch in my pjs and search for my ancestors, but when I can find the time I always prefer the firsthand thrill of the hunt - talking to relatives, poking around in cemeteries and courthouses, and walking the streets and land where my ancestors once stood. Before planning a trip to the State Historical Society, the Family History Library, the National Archives or the local courthouse, however, I always do my homework. There is nothing more frustrating as a genealogist than to drive two hours for a day at the State Archives only to find out they are closed this week for renovations, or that the records you need are in off-site storage and can't be retrieved for at least 3 days (yes, I learned this the hard way!). Prepare for your genealogy research trip in advance with these 10 Tips for On-Site Genealogy Research. In addition, checking off these 10 Questions to Ask Before You Visit a Research Facility  in advance of your visit will help you to avoid frustration and increase your research time. Time for me to check out the Yvelines Archives before my research trip to France next month!

Found primarily in France, New France (French-Canada, Louisiana, etc.), and Scotland, dit names are essentially an alias tacked on to a family name or surname. Dit in French is a form of the word dire, which means "to say," and in the case of dit names is translated loosely as "that is to say," or "called." Therefore, the first name is the family's original surname, passed down to them by an ancestor, while the "dit" name is the name the person/family is actually called or known as. Dit names are used by families, not specific individuals, and are usually passed down to future generations, either in place of the orginal surname, or in addition to it.

Why a dit name? Dit names were often adopted by families to distinguish them from another branch of the same family. Interestingly, many dit names derived from military service, where early French military rules required a nom de guerre, or nickname, for all regular soldiers. The specific dit name may have been chosen for many of the same reasons as the original surname - as a nickname based on trade or physical characteristics, to identify the ancestral place of origin (Andre Jarret de Beauregard, where Beauregard refers to the ancestral home in the French province of Dauphine), etc.

A dit name can be legally used to replace the family's original surname, so you may find an individual listed with a dit name, or under either the original surname or the dit name. Dit names may also be found reversed with the original surname, or as hyphenated surnames.

• Hudon dit Beaulieu
• Beaulieu dit Hudon
• Hudon Beaulieu
• Beaulieu Hudon
• Hudon-Beaulieu
• Beaulieu-Hudon
• Hudon
• Beaulieu

When recording a dit name in your family tree software, it is generally standard practice to record it in its most common form - e.g. Hudon dit Beaulieu. A standardized list of dit names with their common variants can be found in Rene Jette's Répertoire des Noms de Famille du Québec" des Origines à 1825 and Msgr Cyprien Tanguay's Dictionnaire genealogique des familles canadiennes (Volume 7). Another extensive source is The dit Name: French Canadian Surnames, Aliases, Adulterations, and Anglicizations by Robert J. Quentin. When the name is not found in one of the above sources, you can use a phone book (Québec City or Montréal) to select the most common form, or just record it in the form most often used by your ancestors.