Has anyone ever Paid for reasearch

[Puffin81]

That’s kind of what I’m thinking, how reliable are they and one day I’d like to think I get the answer which would be really rewarding.

But on the other hand, if someone who knows can break the wall what else will I find myself

[trish58]

Yes, once a few years ago, and they only came back with the information which I had given to them. I have done my own research ever since. My opinion was it was a waste of time. Ask forums for help or persevere on your own.

Good luck
 

[coombs]

That’s kind of what I’m thinking, how reliable are they and one day I’d like to think I get the answer which would be really rewarding.

But on the other hand, if someone who knows can break the wall what else will I find myself

I do often wonder if some researchers just pick a likely candidate so they can charge you for it, or pick random people with the same surname instead of the name you are looking for, so they can charge you for each entry. This one said she thought she found my ancestor in the 1851 census, and I was very excited until the one she found was 20 years older than I expected her to be. The researcher had a photocopy of the census entry which deffo gave her age as 81 in 1851.

When I obtained her 1854 death cert, it said she was 85.

[dowdstree]

Be very careful spending your cash.

With the internet these days it is so much easier to do your own research.

If the records have been lost somewhere down the years or were never recorded in the first place pre official registration then no one is going to find what does not exist.

Sorry to sound so gloomy.

Dorrie

[mckha489]

About 3 years ago I employed a specialist firm to have someone look at some files I knew were at National Archives.  I picked the firm from NA’s list. I supplied the references.  I had to pay for a mimimum of 3 hours work, which was £90 . I thought about that long and hard, but it would have cost me £50 to pay for a relative’s train ticket to get there and they would have been inexperienced.

I had asked for a quote from NA to copy them and that was more than the £90

As it turned out, the person assigned to my query was very interested in the problem as it was a bit different from her usual work, and she knew some other places to look, and those documents opened up other avenues of research. Used up all the three hours. I paid for another hour and by that time she was so riveted she did another couple of hours no charge.

The total number of files we eventually found was enormous, I would never have found them. So in all quite a lot of money, but I didn’t begrudge a penny. Especially as it knocked down a branch of a family tree that has been in circulation since the mid 1800s (and of course is available on Ancestry and everyone just takes it for gospel, but there are errors.)

A side benefit was that she taught me how to use the Discovery catalogue more effectively.  Her words “it’s called Discovery because it takes so long to Discover how to use it”!

[Ruskie]

I think like anything there will be good and bad researchers, and sometimes even the good researchers won't be able to find what you are looking for.

Mckha489's experience is a very positive one. I think that knowing where to look for records that are no online or for additional records is key to a good researcher, as is honesty in saying that particular records do not exist. Someone who I discovered was a distant cousin paid for a researcher to research a branch of his family history. This cousin sent me a copy of the research and I was fairly impressed - it seemed very thorough. I was also pleased that what I had found independently tallied with their findings.

There have been a couple of professional researchers on rootschat who came into question. One in particular had a flash website offering her services, yet she was constantly on rootschat asking for lookups from Familysearch!  Suspicions were aroused because of her non stop lookup requests for unrelated people from a free website despite being told she could easily find this information herself.

[Puffin81]

So basically you guys did the work she got paid 🤣😊😊. Sounds like a good business model

[Jang]

Years ago I was stuck on my 3g grandparents who appeared in the 1841 census in Scotland. Both were born in Ireland. I used a professional researcher who'd been very helpful (for free!) previously when I was just starting out, to see if he could find out anything about them.  £60 later - and a negative result, which didn't surprise me - that was, until 2 weeks later when I found their marriage - on the IGI!!

[a chesters]

Not strictly research, but I have paid a transcription agent in NSW, to obtain birth and marriage certificates from UK for me.

Possibly could have done it myself, but the person was recommended by the NSW BDM people as an authorised person.