RootsChat.Com
Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: mitch_flo on Wednesday 09 March 16 07:51 GMT (UK)
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Hey everyone,
I'm new here and some what new to studying my family history. I have thought about hiring a professional genealogist to help me get started. I wanted to know if anyone had any experience doing this? Thanks
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Welcome to RootsChat! ;D
You should be able to get started yourself - maybe with a little help from helpful RootsChatters ;D
Start with yourself, then your parents, then grandparents.
Use websites like FreeBMD.org.uk (for England & Wales) to fill out some of the details.
(e.g. all births after 1st July 1911 will show Mother's Maiden Name - which should lead you to a marriage!)
You haven't stated, on your profile, where in the world you are? So what resources are available will depend on what countries.
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Welcome to Rootschat from me too!
Totally agree with KGarrad. No need to hire a "professional". They will only have access to info that is in the public domain, the same as everyone else.
Start with what you know, and then go one step at a time, confirming each step from as many different angles as you can.
If you are unsure how to proceed just ask on here (remember not to name anyone who is still living)
Start with your parents - have you got their birth certs? marriage cert? Do you know the names of their parents? and when and where the grandparents were born? etc etc
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Also,
If you know where grand parents are buried, the head stones can provide valuable details.
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You could also buy a textbook and/ or join the (free) online course that a lot of people on here are about to start
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Welcome Mitch😀
This is the best genealogy community in the world, hundreds of experienced researchers 24 hrs a day 7 days a week! Welcome!
Certainly a great place to start your enquiries, and get advice and assistance - totally free!
As Lizdb says, start with what you know and people on here will help you work back from there. However, we are not permitted to post details of living people on Rootschat, nor email addresses.
There is a personal message system that will activate automatically after your 3rd post, where if needed you can discuss personal details with other members.
So if your parents and grandparents are deceased, you could perhaps post their names, dates and locations, and tell us what you already know about them. I'm sure you'll get some good starting points from there!
Happy hunting!
Jeanne 😄
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Welcome to RootsChat. I agree with the others, don't waste your money on hiring a professional for something that you can easily do yourself with help from people on here. There are so many free records online nowadays, that it should be fairly easy to get back to the last available census, the 1911. Subscription sites such as Ancestry and Find My Past often have free weekends or introductory offers, so make use of those.
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I agree that hiring a "professional" is not always a good idea nor is it financially viable.
One of my ante-decendants hired a professional in the hope of locating a death record his mother.
It was a very sad story involving 3 very young children whose mother simply vanished from their lives
Many years later, their son caught up with his estranged father who insisted that his wife/ the children's mother was in a mental institution in the north of Scotland.
The son did not believe his father.
The "professional" insisted that he had used all the information provided, had searched everywhere but no death record existed.
I looked at the death cert for the father.
He was not a widower when he died.
It indicated that his wife was still living. ( the professional did not pick up in this)
It took me 2 minutes to find the death certificate for his widow.
She died in a mental institution, in the north of Scotland some years after her estranged husband.
Simply because he hired a professional who failed to find any of these records , their son died in full belief that something really bad had happened to his mother... at the hands of his father
His children also held this belief until I found her DC
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I agree that hiring a "professional" is not always a good idea nor is it financially viable.
One of my ante-decendants hired a professional in the hope of locating a death record his mother.
It was a very sad story involving 3 very young children whose mother simply vanished from their lives
Many years later, their son caught up with his estranged father who insisted that his wife/ the children's mother was in a mental institution in the north of Scotland.
The "professional" insisted that he had used all the information provided, had searched everywhere but no death record existed.
I looked at the death cert for the father. He was not a widower when he died. It indicated that his wife was still living. ( the professional did not pick up in this)
It took me 2 minutes to find the death certificate for his widow.
She died in a mental institution, in the north of Scotland some years after her estranged husband.
Simply because he hired a professional who failed to find any of these records , their son died in full belief that something really bad had happened to his mother... at the hands of his father
His children also held this belief until I found her DC
Oh Anne that is so sad, poor family :(
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As others have said, hiring a professional may not be the best idea for several reasons, and doing a course can be very helpful. When I got started on this about 7 years ago I did a very basic course on family history - really intended to introduce older people to computers (!) - it was well taught and gave me a good idea how to find information and how to use it, made me much more confident to research. And almost straight away I found this website and spent quite a lot of time looking at other people's questions and answers, still do, find that very informative. The main thing for me is that I enjoy doing this so much that I wouldn't want to ask someone else to do it for me. I'm sure there's a place for professionals, but it's better for me for any mistakes to be my own!
Drosybont
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There are so many genealogy sites today that I feel you would be able to do most of your research by yourself.As a lot of sites have offers or trail periods you maybe surprised what you discover on your own.Even professionals need basic info to get started and you will already have that.We all hit brickwalls but you will have the support of forums like Rootschat we are always willing to help.One word of caution,if you do try one of the free trial or offers on some sites make sure you uncheck any automatic renewal boxes.Have fun with your research.
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I would support all that's been said - well, very nearly. You can do a huge amount by yourself and this site is a great help. I'd recommend buying or borrowing a few books - Peter Christian's The Genealogist's Internet and Mark Heber's Ancestral Trails have been really helpful to me.
But there are bits of research where the professional can help. I have hired someone to do targeted research in the National Library of Wales - he took far less time than I would and cost far less than travel would have done. Similarly I've spent some time in the East India collections in the British Library but have found it more cost-effective to hire a professional who knows where to look. And I've also had transatlantic help in Toronto which would have been nearly impossible on a DIY basis. But all this followed a lot of DIY research online and in archives and the Society of Genealogists' library.
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Hi
i agree with everyone else, i started doing my family tree numerous years ago now and have done my friends trees too. It as became a huge hobby of mine so if you need any help with anything just let me know.
Hope you are successful in your research and good luck
kimmie
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You'll get no better help for any money than here!
There are people on here with all sorts of expertise, from Railway staff to obscure religions, from law to lunacy, and they are all so helpful!
Every time I've put a query on, I've had excellent advice and help, with the right mix of helping you to find-it-yourself and confidence-boosting "goodies". Even one's silliest question is treated sincerely, and politely.
When you've made a start, the more you browse around on here, the better an idea you'll get of how to advance your own studies, and that's a far better feeling than merely reading what someone else has found - for money- for you. If you check, and build from secure factual knowledge at each step, you'll be doing it the right way.
Just think: the amount of time you spend on this search is time spent learning. Most of us can't find a great deal that paid "professionals" can do that the "Big Team" of rootschatter researchers can't have a good bash at. And you'll never finish it ......
....and in time you'll find yourself back on a forum here, helping someone else!
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I agree TY, the beauty of Rootschat is that we work as a team, not as individuals. So a post on here gets seen by many people, who have lots of different resources and records they can check, some quite obscure and not online. Also it means that several people are checking answers and so you are more likely to be given the correct facts rather than just relying on the opinion of one person.
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Couldn't say better than that Groom! Except perhaps that we also have a load of fun in here!!
🐵🙈🙉
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Hi Mitch and welcome to Rootschat....you will find that many members on here are as good as any professional researchers and often more freely available....and do enjoy the thrill of the chase...where else would you get a 24 hour service without having to pay a fee.
Carol
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The magic touch in here is the great spirit of friendliness, and the unparalleled and COMMITTED TEAMWORK! I truly think that's why Rootschat is so effective!
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Welcome from me too Mitch. :)
I agree with everyone else's comments - it is much more rewarding to do your own research. You will also get lots of second opinions on here if you are unsure if you are on the right track - just ask and there will be plenty keen to check your 'work'.
Further to Graham's comments about possibly hiring professionals to search for a specific record held in a specific archive, it is still worth requesting a lookup as you may find a rootschatter who lives locally and may have experience researching this archive and may be willing to do a lookup for you. I have had a lot of help in this regard. I live in Australia and have had help from rootschatters in New Register House in Edinburgh and Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire to name just two. I have also tried to assist others by providing lookups in my local archives.
In the past rootschat has had members who were "professional" genealogists (with nice websites and scales of charges), requesting help for research they were doing for clients, which was naturally frowned upon on rootschat. I remember that some of those questions were extremely basic and required a two minute search on a free online site. :-\
On rootschat you will get many contributions from many different people, which also provides confirmation that the research is correct, rather than just trusting the finds of one person, "professional" or not.
The free online course many of us are taking starts next week and it is not too late to sign up:
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/genealogy
One more thing - it might be just me, but I find that if you do your own research you understand it better, and can follow it more easily (family history can sometimes get a little confusing and complicated). I can imagine how confused I would be if presented with a fully completed extensive tree. ;)
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So: Have we all encouraged you to save your money for certificates, and roll up your sleeves, and get started on researching yourself?
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If you are in the UK it's sometimes possible to get free access to a geneology website at a family history centre or even a library.
I managed to trace quite a few ancestors - back to about 1800 on some branches - without paying a penny. Best to do this first and only think of hiring someone when you've made a start and understand the issues.
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Welcome to Rootschat Mitch
I agree with everyone else that you should not have any need to pay someone to do the research. Once you start looking, you will feel a great sense of satisfaction as you discover your ancestors.
If you get stuck, there are so many excellent researchers on here that will always try to help you.
Give it a try yourself and you will find it is very enjoyable.
Happy Hunting.
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Let's hope Mitch returns soon. I'm sure we will all be interested to find out if we have managed to talk him out of it. :)
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Hope we haven't frightened him off with our enthusiam! ;D ;D ;D
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The only reasons I would recommend a professional would be the client had money but no time or desire to do their own genealogy.
Secondly the families to be researched came from lets say Poland.
Thirdly most people just do their own genealogy and records exist or do not exist. I find the hardest thing to do is to prove you are a descendant of a Mayflower Passenger, or a Daughter of the American Revolution. Perhaps it would be wise for someone to retain a professional to prove lineage for these two Societies.
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You should tell your family that you are going to start tracing your family history. Parents, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins. Ask them if they have any photos, stories etc.
You will find most of them will have info, stories, photos etc. which they will be pleased to share and will give you clues that you can follow up. Your family history is also theirs, and you will be surprised what people come up with when asked. Tell people you will photograph and return them. Birth certificates etc. can be copied very easily with phones, digital cameras etc, and the quality is great (take several copies of each). If you get a chance to copy old photos there are some very clever members on RootsChat that can do some incredible restoration.
Even things like an old watch become part of your story.
I have been given some wonderful photos that I would never have seen, had I not asked.
Enjoy yourself, it's a great hobby - but be warned it gets addictive!!
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Hi,
I would just like to say that I wouldn't ask a "Professional" Genealogist unless it was my only choice in circumstances.
My brother hired a "Professional"...unknown to him at the time that I was doing our family tree.
The Genealogist gave my brother info. which was way off the truth simply because of names on census records tying in with family marital surnames although the surnames were different.
The genealogist assumed the surnames of our ancestors on the census to be an error.
When my brother got in touch with me, I set to work on digging further & managed to find the errors myself.
The errors were simple....2 people with same forename although different surnames had been mistaken by the genealogist as an error & thought/assumed they were the same person.
A closer look myself, I noticed the difference in ages as well as the different surnames albeit my ancestor was illegitimate but was under her father's surname & a sister of the family on the census who were married.
I followed on with getting death certs. & children of the married couple from census etc. & they turned out to be aunt (my ancestor) & niece!!! The niece (same forename) married my ancestor's "partner" ::)
My brother couldn't believe how I managed to figure things out but I have all the evidence through certs. to prove the genealogists errors.
I so enjoyed it too as it gave me a sense of achievement because if I had gone by what my brother was given, I'd be sitting on a brick wall to this day :P
Annie
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I think that shows why you shouldn't rely entirely on professional genealogists. Since the increased interest in Family History and related television programmes, quite a few people have now advertised themselves as experts, just because they have done their own and a few other trees. Some are very good and admit if they can't find things,but others unfortunately, as shown by Rosinish, make mistakes. These go unnoticed as most people who have hired a professional just accept what they are given - why check it if you've paid someone to do it?
Genealogy is a fun hobby and getting someone else to do the basic work takes that fun and the sense of ownership away. I think the only time I would consider using a professional is if I was stuck on a specific area where I had no way of getting access to records. Even then I would be very careful who I chose.
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I would recommend having a go at doing the research yourself, making those discoveries is 90% of the enjoyment of knowing your family history.
If you hit a real brick wall, need advice on a specialist area, or work done in a particular archive then you can consider professional help at that point.
If you do, you should carefully look at the qualifications and experience of the person you choose - in the UK, you should be looking for full membership of AGRA or ASGRA.
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Some county family history societies offer a search service. They often hold cd's or booklets on churchyard inscriptions etc. I recently got a inscription found (I knew the church) for a very reasonable price of £1.50.
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I hired a ' professional' just the once in the hope that she could break my brickwall . She didn't find anything that I didn't already know and nothing towards breaking that wall. It was a waste of money. Online I have seen trees done by ' professionals' containing births years after the baptism and births years after the mother has died. As a non professional I would be ashamed to put my name to it.
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Hi mitch_flo... :)
My understanding is that a "professional" genealogist charges, ie. charging is the defining feature of the description "professional", regardless of competence.
But grateful for advice from other readers of this post.