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I wasn't tarring anyone. Some have good experiences with pros, some don't. Did you suggest that anyone who reported good experiences should be accused of not caveating the emptors?
And the dichotomy under discussion wasn't actually "doing their own research" and "want a professional to help". It was posting at this site or another site to request help given freely by fellow amateurs vs. retaining and paying a professional.
I'm sorry, but I see a post identifying one's self as a professional and citing one's fees and describing one's services as touting.
It would have been seen that way in my days in the law biz, when lawyers in Canada were forbidden to tout.
(I left practice some years ago to pursue an aspect of another field that a career counselling test later confirmed was my second best career choice. It also said, a decade before I ever looked into family history, that if neither of them worked out, I should seriously consider professional genealogist. ;) )
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A qualified genealogist can personally search records that no other website can offer and knows what class of indexing they come under,certain records outside the realms of census,BDM and ships lists can only be searched in person.
I have used a researcher in the past due to logistics, and was greatly suprised to get information from archived material I never knew exsisted so the costs were well worth it.
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Years ago -- granted, before the internet -- a cousin of my mum's paid a researcher in England (we're in Canada) to try to find out about their grandfather's family (my great-grandfather). He had immigrated here in 1909 and the family here had only his fanciful tales to go on.
The researcher came back with: "He might have been born in Ireland or Germany or Cornwall". I don't know how much the cousin paid for this fascinating and useful information.
The Viscount Monck line is of the Irish peerage (but originally English). There are Moncks (more often Monk, and more often in the US) who are anglicized versions of German surnames. I could have reported that after 5 minutes with Google. And Cornwall?
Well, it turns out that the Ernest Monk in the 1881 census in Cheshire, born in St Ives, Cornwall -- probably the person the genealogist was looking at, and one of the first items I considered myself -- is in fact my gr-grfather, born near St Ive, Cornwall. Problem is, his name when he was born was Ernest Hill. It took me, oh, a couple of hundred hours of intense work with search engines, bouncing theories off a tolerant mentor in England, and that mentor's visit to a Cornwall records office, to figure that out and find the clinching evidence. Then I set about trying to track down the siblings I had discovered he had -- and of course tracing his ancestors.
I've had great help here at GR, for example from the much missed Lewella in Australia who found me passenger records for the family's emigration there before Canada, more recently the Hill/Monck fans who helped me find more info when I discovered parish records newly on line this summer about a brother I'd been unable to find after his teenaged years (in Lancashire -- those Cornwall Hills didn't sit still), people (like FBG) who've sent me records from sites I don't pay to access, and just generally, suggestions and feedback from those who take an interest in other people's puzzles.
The same has been true for another mystery ancestor, a grx2 grfather on my dad's Wiltshire side. Members here have scoured parish records they have copies of for his baptism or parents' marriage, and thought outside the box when (even) I failed to -- Michael D found his father marrying in Scotland!
And armed with the skills and savvy I developed while hunting Gr-Grf Hill/Monck, the best crash course in genealogy anyone could have, I've done much the same for I have no idea how many GR members and their own mystery ancestors. All for the princely sum of 20 pounds a year (or 1/2 year) -- my sub + their sub.
I have no idea what this kind of research would have cost me, or them, if a pro were doing it. But I'm quite sure that no pro would have found what I did in the case of my mum's grandfather -- unless, perhaps, I'd put someone on retainer full-time for a few months.
I'm one of the people who've found things that a pro failed to find -- in one case, because I spotted a simple variant surname spelling for a birth in the GRO index, which then cracked that wall.
I've also been helped tremendously by a pro who does post here at GR, free of charge, in that genealogy karma way. What goes around here, comes around.
Yes, there are cases where special trips and expense will clearly be needed, and that's a situation where a pro might have to be retained. On the other hand, there may be people here who can and will take on the task -- I've also had another member offer to visit a local library for me, and she in fact found my Moncks (spelled correctly) in the local directory in Cheshire at the time of the 1881 census.
And yes, there will be situations that people don't want to discuss on the internet. I'm certainly among the first to acknowledge that, and even urge discretion in many cases. I'm also among the ones who will offer to help by private message in such cases (much as I hate genealogy by PM!). I'm smack in the middle of such a case, where from a question on the board, I figured out that someone's grandma was likely a bigamist (unless her first husband was!), with at least two children (possibly now living) born between the marriages, etc. etc. The member loved her grandma dearly and just wants to know more about her life, but not to display it all on the internet.
The pro I referred to earlier doesn't use GR to tout, but rather contributes here for the enjoyment of it and, like the rest of us, to put their skills and resources to work to help when the question doesn't require special trips and expense.
I'm seeing what looks like a pretty clear case of touting in this thread, though.
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I do agree that there are times when a hired researcher is very useful.
Many years ago before so much was online, we hired someone to look at Irish records for us. He was very professional and found exactly what we wanted for us to be able to do further reasearch for ourselves. His price must have been reasonable or I'd have remembered his charges!
We also asked someone to look in South Africa when we wanted to follow a link there. She wasn't able to find the required information and said she didn't require paying for the unfruitful searches, although we know they must have taken some time.
I do know of someone who asked for help in West Sussex and all that was sent was a transcribed list, done by the local family history group which I'd noticed on the shelf when we visited Chichester ourselves.
If someone is offering a research service, I would at least expect them to refer to original parish registers, not a transcript.
Swings and roundabouts..........
Gwyn
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£20 an hour ??
How much can you find,print off and compile in an hour?
It can take days , weeks ,months and many attempts to find something and then verify it.
I spent 3 months and many useless certs unravelling just my Greatgrandfathers birth,(he changed his first name at age 15ish I learnt)and that with an uncommon name.
Wonder what that would have cost me?
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I agree with MM up to a point, but I can see situations where hiring someone is the way to go. E.g., I've seen a tree showing my dad's cousin's ma-in-law was b 6/6/1853, abt 15km S of Carbonear. An attempt to contact the tree-owner has failed.
The presence of such an exact date makes me think there is a record to be found, but I'm not likely to get to the provincial archives in St John's Newfoundland, some 7000km away, any time soon.
If this person had been less peripheral, and if I didn't already have a competent contact in St John's, I could see hiring someone to dig that out for me, and maybe find her marr too - their first child was born in Newfoundland, but baptized and recorded in Gaspe Quebec.
Most archives do give out lists of researchers who've put their names on the list.
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interesting ! so you are a professional researcher
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Clare
Why not first put your problem on these boards and see if other GR folk can help.
I agree with Shirley, local knowledge is invaluable at times.
Gwyn
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I belong to the Kent Family History Society and we often get enquiries from outside the area that are announced at meetings with requests for someone to help. Some of our members will take up a query ,some charge expenses and some will do it FOC if its local. The advantage of going to the local FHS is that members know where to look as they are familiar with the area because their own families have originated from there.
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genealogist use the same resources as we do on here, local records offices, parish churches , birth marriage and death indexs, census etc
If the place you want to search is far from where you live a lot of record offices do searches for a small fee.
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Hi Clalre
a distant cousin of mine has recently used a researcher through Lancashire Records Office as we were struggling with our side of the family who we thought hailed from Huyton.
without giving her very much information she went back 2 more generations as the family came originally from St Helens/Rainford.
As a result of this i have now gone back another 2 generations which would not have happened without her help.
the cost was £20 an hour so in total this viatl information cost £35.
Yes this site is fantastic for help as i have used it myself and also helped others were i can,but this extra help was invaluable.
hope this helps
Norma
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this site has the best genealogists,and its free,their payment is a- please or thank you
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I agree with Margaret
and add that I have seen previous postings where the helpers on here have succeeded in finding information that a professional geneologist had failed to find, or have proved wrong the information that a professional had found ......... and the people involved had paid quite large amounts for this.
I'm not saying that professional genealogists are fakes, just that we have all heard on here about the failures.
NB .............. it has not been unknown for a professional genealogist to post a thread on GR in an attempt to get the "helpers" to find the information for him/her! It doesn't take long for the regulars to suss out such a person!
May I suggest that you go to either Trying to Find or Records boards (do NOT post the same question on both threads!) and post a thread asking for help in finding your information. Then please stay around for at least 10 minutes or so, checking back regularly to the thread in case soemone has a question for you. The time for a response to a question can often be measured in seconds.
The advantage with doing it on here is that you may get several people helping to find the answer ....... we all have different strengths, and will direct helpers to a certain question if we think that helper has a better chance of being successful ...... and we do work together as well
all for free!
sylvia
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I don't know how much it costs but in my opinion you won't get any better genealogical research than what you get on this site free of charge by the many volunteers.
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does anyone know how much it costs to hire a privite genealogist and what companys offer this please
kind regards
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