Has anyone ever Paid for reasearch

[PrawnCocktail]

I am staggered by some of the stories on here!

I do what KG does, only in Northamptonshire, and research for someone if they ask, since I have the local knowledge. And it is horrible having to go back and tell someone you couldn't find anything, or nothing very much. But I would never dream of asking on Rootschat, my client could do that themselves.

I used to be a professional librarian. with a degree in that and Maths. The librarian bit taught me how to research, and the Maths bit, logic.

One thing Pure Maths taught me was never, ever, to make an assumption. "Therefore" had to mean just that - that the next statement was a logical certainty! I will point out to clients where there might be an assumption which could be made, and leave it up to them whether they want to make it, if there is really no other way through. Never make it myself!

All very useful in this hobby!

[silvery]

A professional researcher is beneficial to those who have no time/inclination for genealogy but have money to pay for the service.

I also believe this comment is a bit harsh and unnecessary.  As stated previously by goldie61, it is a bit difficult when you live twelve and a half thousand miles away to conduct some research.  I personally devote many hours to family history research and take my research seriously.

How many miles away you are makes no difference whatsoever when it is all searching on the internet.   Some people have never been to a record office, or Kew, or a graveyard.   

[goldie61]

A professional researcher is beneficial to those who have no time/inclination for genealogy but have money to pay for the service.

I also believe this comment is a bit harsh and unnecessary.  As stated previously by goldie61, it is a bit difficult when you live twelve and a half thousand miles away to conduct some research.  I personally devote many hours to family history research and take my research seriously.

How many miles away you are makes no difference whatsoever when it is all searching on the internet.   Some people have never been to a record office, or Kew, or a graveyard.   

I'm sorry, but you can't possibly believe genealogy research is 'all searching on the internet'.
What's available on the internet is but a drop in the ocean of information that exists.
That would be very poor research indeed, and would mean those people would a) come to a standstill when records on the internet come to a cease to exist or don't exist at all; and b)  would be missing out on a huge range of incredibly interesting information held in hundreds of depositories that may relate to their families.

If it were all 'on the internet' Rootchat wouldn't exist, as everybody would be able to find everything they were looking for without any help from people who do 'look-ups', visit record offices, pass on information they have private sources, etc etc ..................

[majm]

Internet ... well if the only resource available was the internet,  I would not have any family history records at all...  all the internet has provided to me is an armchair access to validate my own research.   The internet gives me access to INDEXES  to official records,  and in some instances those official records have been digitised and uploaded,  BUT there are  kilometres of stored archives held at NSW State Archives that are not digitised,  same at National Archives, Canberra and throughout each Australian state and territory,  likely same around the globe.

My earliest "Australian" ancestors came to NSW in 1790s and several were excellent record keepers.  None of the family's private papers have been made available to any commercial organisation,  but many a PhD student has been given access, and the papers are on restricted access at the NSW state Library's Mitchell library ....

Family history when studied in context with  local history, and more broadly can be a wonderful way to enrich our knowledge base,  but armchair lookups at individual pages of primary source documents can confuse the beginner who has joined up any commercial website just to 'do their family tree' in a weekend, or even in a lifetime.


JM

[dowdstree]

The internet is a useful tool but as said you have to expand it with further research.

I must be very lucky because my father's family came from Ireland mostly and settled in Dundee in the mid to late 1800's. Most of my records on his side come from Scotlands People and Irish Records.
I have visited the records office in Edinburgh in person and with the help of surviving family members have found the graves of a number of ancestors in Dundee and been able to visit and pay my respects.

My mother's family were all from the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland and the above applies to them too.

It is a lifetime journey researching your family history and you never stop wanting to find out more by whatever means.


Dorrie

[Puffin81]

I think, its difficult for a lot of people to maintain this hobby without the internet.  My local records office isn’t open on a weekend, I work full time.  Searching graveyards is fruitless as so far everyone was too poor for a stone, then another of my lines goes to Ireland, I would have to arrange at least a weekend to travel, which would be expensive plus at this time I haven’t a clue where to look.

A few years ago this hobby would have been impossible for me

[goldie61]

Ah, but there will be other people on here besides me who did genealogy BEFORE the internet was invented! (yes, there really was such a time!), so it never really was 'impossible'.
And we did it when not living in the UK.
This involved hours and hours of scanning through microfilms at LDS libraries, for which we had waited weeks to arrive from Salt lake City. If the film wasn't available (and there were some places which steadfastly refused the LDS to film their registers), it also involved writing letters to the ministers of churches for them to see if they could look for and provide copies of BMD entries in the registers. All very frustrating and inordinately slow.
Now with a couple of clicks, lots of this kind of information can be found, so yes, thank goodness for the internet, and those websites that provide access to it, but remember that is not the be all and end all of genealogical research.

[majm]

Yes,

  that would likely be back in the era of the SAE and the book of stamps and
  the exchange of research within and between family history groups, and
   the lookups for other members in exchange for requesting a lookup,  loading a reel of film to wind through and the light going 'pop' ... or the last person did not check the reel and its back to front,  or    ... open the mail and they have sent you 10 pages,  but not for your enquiry and next day you get fresh mail with apology wrong contents in wrong envelopes .. and request for you to post it back plus send more stamps ... postage stamps ...
   Or be the committee member opening the mail,  read through, figure out which member will do the lookup based on your own knowledge of their ability to decipher the enquirers scribble and be patient, polite, etc and gently handle a genuine response to the extremely abrupt demand for priority info....

JM

[mckha489]

You left off International reply Coupons IRCs in lieu of stamps.

And writing your letters in a duplicate book so you could keep track of what you had asked for