What Do Professional Genealogists Do?

Have you ever wondered if you needed to hire a professional genealogist? How much would they cost? What do professional genealogists do that’s different than a regular family historian? Why would you need one if you can find your answers on your own?

This post will shed some light on what a professional genealogist does for you. So let’s get started!

What do professional genealogists do?

First of all, these people spend years and vast amounts of money to educate themselves on the proper way to do genealogy research. I’m not saying regular family historians don’t educate themselves on the proper way of doing things, but I’m saying these people go through formal training to get to the same place. In addition, the formal training usually gets them to their results faster then what a family historian learns at their own pace.

Second, when you hire a professional, they give you professional looking reports, tracking sheets, scanned original genealogy records, and a breakdown of what it actually cost to do this project. If you don’t want all of that, then they can tailor their reports to fit your needs and your project. However, it’s very impressive to get a full work up of your project in neat organized papers. All you have to do is put it in your genealogy storage and your done.

Third, these people push themselves to get accredited. What does that mean? It means that they go through a series of tests with a nationally recognized genealogy company. In this way, they are making sure they are knowledgeable, ethical, and sound in their genealogy methods. Basically, they get impressive looking letters behind their name saying that they have a nationally recognized company backing them up. They have sound ethics, they are knowledgeable about their specialized field, and they’ve earned it. The tests are very intense! Therefore, you can trust them because they’ve worked hard to be worthy of that trust.

How much do professional genealogists cost?

This can be a tricky answer in my opinion. Yes, they can be expensive. Ancestry.com professional genealogists can charge an easy $100 an hour for a project. However, they’ve earned that! In other cases, a professional genealogist will charge $10 an hour for a different project. This is why these professionals usually do a free consultation to determine what your needs are and if it’s going to be an expensive project or not. The charges they ask for not only include their time, but it also includes library/archive fees, copy fees, travel fees, parking fees, mailing fees, and colleague fees, etc. The base hourly fee doesn’t include these fees. If the professional is worthy of his/her salt, then they will give you an estimate with all of the predicted fees that they would have for the project.

I believe there is a professional genealogist for every budget. Most people are just looking at the big research firms for prices because they are the easiest to find online. It may take longer to find them because they’re not with the big research firms, but dig deeper. You can find the professional genealogist that is right for you and your budget. Just keep digging.

When Should I Hire a Professional Genealogist?

You need to ask yourself a series of questions to answer this one. Is this genealogy problem beyond my skills? Do I have time and energy to do the research myself? Can I get this genealogy project done when there’s a time deadline? Have I exhausted all of my known resources including asking friends and colleagues up to this point? When is it enough for me?

I know it can be uncomfortable when deciding whether to hire a genealogist or not. However, I believe that most of these professionals are here to help you. They were once like you starting out on their own genealogy journeys. Give them a chance and see where they take you on your own journey.

Good luck and happy hunting

Tiffany

P.S. If you want to learn more about professional genealogists, then check out my other blog article here. If you want to know more about becoming a professional genealogist, then head over here. Also, head over here if you want a list of the professional genealogists all in one place online. This isn’t the only link, but it’s a good one to start with.