"Do you get an unqualified someone to do it for free?"
I've been approached several times and asked to give guest speeches regarding genealogy. The first time was just over a year ago. After spending a considerable time preparing the presentation and speech, it was mentioned that they couldn't afford to pay as they were a small society. My immediate reaction was "You pay your electrician don't you - or do you get an unqualified someone to do it for free?" You get what you pay for...
Genealogists - More than our jobs worth
Do consumers know the value of a professional genealogist? How do you put a price on experience, knowledge and professionalism? The key words are experience and knowledge, a professional genealogist knows how to apply the correct methodology for the basis of any research undertaken and will always produce the best possible results.
Take for instance a lady I met several years ago, she had spent literally thousands of pounds researching her paternal line but couldn't understand why things didn't tally-up. She had ordered her Fathers and Grandfathers birth certificates and followed this line back correctly, however on the forth generation she had ordered the wrong birth certificate. The name and date of birth of 'her' 4x Great Grandfather were more or less correct, so she assumed it was him, but it wasn't.
Of course from there on things just went pear shaped. Strange names and places began appearing and two more generations back it turned out that they originated from Russia! Months were spent stabbing in the dark, ordering wrong certificates and spending days trying to make sense of a family tree that just didn't 'feel' right.
In desperation the lady hired a 'professional' genealogist who didn't check to see if the reseach she had done was correct and subsequently charged her £800 for a family tree that in fact was a farce. The lady estimated that she had spent over £2000 on her tree and eventually gave up out of frustration.
Pure coincidence led me to hear about this, a friend of mine who was thinking about researching her own tree mentioned that she would like to find out about her family but couldn't afford it. It was pointed out that it didn't have to be expensive and the good thing is that genealogy is an ongoing interest and expenses can be spread out over years, even decades. She then told me about her work colleague who had spent over £2000 on a broken tree.
Contacts were made between myself and the lady, after an initial look at her tree I found the 'break' and showed her where she had gone wrong. Within a few hours her broken branch was fixed and the correct birth certificate of her 4x Great Grandfather was ordered.
What about all that money she had spent? Luckily enough, someone else was reseaching the same (wrong) family and bought all the certificates from her, as a job lot, for a reduced amount. She had managed to redeem some of the money she had spent and also was on the right track with her own tree.
A day was spent training her, showing her how to cite references, use genealogy software and how to validate each individual in her tree. Having spoken to her recently, I am glad to hear that she has reached back as far as 1610 and met several distant cousins in the process. She and her family have since had a holiday in Australia where they met and stayed with one of the newly found cousins.
The price she paid? The initial research, correcting her tree and the training all came to under £400. What did she get? A beautiful printed family tree that she gave to her parents for their golden wedding annivarsay, a whole bunch of 'new' relatives and a stay with one her newly found cousins in a beautiful setting on an Australian beach...oh and her daugher met her future husband whilst there.
So who is to say what the value of a professional genealogist is.
Somerset Genealogy.
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