Looking for tips on having Genealogy as a career

[Tom Langley]

I am currently a dairy farmer and have decided this is not the career for me. I have been a keen researcher of my family history for nearly 10 years now, and its suddenly dawned on me that ive remained passionate about the subject the whole time (unlike farming), and that perhaps this could be the career for me.
I planned my life out to be a farmer, so all my qualifications have built up to that. I have read in many places that it is not a necessity to have qualifications to be a genealogist but it does help.

Id rather not go back to school, but dont know if its realistic to think of a career in genealogy with out a degree relating to the topic.

Im hoping someone on here may have been through a similar issue, or may be able to offer me some advice?

Hope someone can help me here!!

[TerriG]

One way to get into it would be volunteering.  This could be at a museum, library, archives, historic building or landmark, to name but a few.

[janjones]

Hi
Yes Geneology is fascinating. I agree that offering to do this as a volunteer may lead to a paid offer in this work.   You are in the right place at the right time to get an offer.
All the best in your new career.
I've got a degree, not in geneology but I doubt you need a degree to do this.
janjones

[groom]

This site from The Society of Genealogists is worth looking at  http://www.sog.org.uk/learn/education-sub-page-for-testing-navigation/guide-eleven/

This part is worth considering as well "there are still relatively few people making a full time living solely as genealogists tracing the family history of other people for a fee. "

I think the problem that you may face is that there are a lot of people in your situation who have developed a love of genealogy and want to do it professionally, so there could be a lot of competition for jobs. I would think that you would need to prove that you have a wide experience of using lots of different resources. You say that you have been a researcher of your family tree for years, have you also done trees for friends or acquaintances? That is much harder in a way as you start with no background knowledge. If not, that could be an opening, offering for a small fee to do trees for others, so building up more skills.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[nanny jan]

Not quite the same but have you considered working for a probate research company (eg. Fraser & Fraser)?


Good luck!


Nanny Jan

[KGarrad]

Not quite the same but have you considered working for a probate research company (eg. Fraser & Fraser)?


Good luck!


Nanny Jan

Fraser & Fraser only take on graduates!

[nanny jan]

Thanks, was only using the name as an example.......... "other companies are available".

[Tom Langley]

Yes I think volunteering is a good idea!
I have done family trees for other people with yes. I had been thinking I would set up a business looking into people's families for them, but after reading up on it, it seems to be frowned upon my SOG etc.
I know I quite capable of doing it and would never take on a task I was unsure of.

Probate research would be good too I think. I quite like heir hunters on BBC 1.

Thanks for the tips!

[sugarbakers]

Tom ... You might want to look at this from the other way round ... why have professional researchers stopped being professional researchers ?

I spent about 10 years doing this work. I offered research in a single English county and got to know the RO very well. I advertised and a steady stream of work came in but whilst there was a profit to be made, it rarely amounted to much.

Apart from overheads like advertising, materials, photography permits and travel, time is the biggest problem. No doubt you enjoy ferreting out all sorts of info for yourself, but consider the time it takes you, and then consider the time it would take you to write it all up in a professional report, and then consider the time it would take to draw up a tree whether by hand or by computer.
It might be worth going through an exercise like that; work out a quote for it first, then do the work and see how accurate your quote was ... and then consider whether a client would pay that amount for your work.
The hardest thing I found was charging a client for three hours work with no results whatsoever.

I stopped working for none of the reasons above. I stopped because I found that more and more folk were doing there own research online (consider the 23,000 & 11,000 learners for the two FutureLearn Genealogy courses). I eventually worked out that I was being asked to do all the 'brick wall' work, and that meant a lot of disappointed clients, no follow-up work and no word-of-mouth work.

Please don't think I'm just a grumpy old man ... try it for yourself, enjoy it, but don't expect it to pay the household bills.