Who would I hire to research my genealogy?

Question

Is there some large, respected company that will give you a detailed family tree for as far back as they can?

Answer 1

Sort of. Exactly where to send you depends on where you live; UK, USA, Australia, India. . .

In the USA, the good ones charge $30 - $75 an hour. Going back "as far as they can" would take 300 hours, at a minimum.

Ancestry will sell you a list of famous people who have your surname (which leaves out 31/32nds of your relatives at the 3rd great grandparent level) and a list of the {Surname} people in the US phone books, for $29.99. It is basically worthless, but lots of people buy one.

You could probably get a poor but honest widow  to poke around for you for $15 an hour through your county genealogical society. (Not THAT honest - cash under the table and fiddle dee dee to the IRS.)

If you can get her the names, birth years and maiden names of your ancestors who were in the USA in 1930, she should be able to give you a couple of generations in 8 - 16 hours on the Internet, via the census.

Answer 2

It depends...  most people who frequent this board want a full pedigree back 12 generations for FREE. If you are looking for someone to research it, please know that genealogists are VERY expensive.  If you have the urge to know your genealogy, might I suggest researching it yourself.  That is how many of us got started and let me tell you, once the genealogy bug bites you, it becomes a long term hobby.  I realize that it might seem hard and kind of complicated but remember, we have all been where you are.  Simply start with yourself and record your date of birth, place of birth, dates/place of marriages (yes all of them) children and their information .  Once you record all of this on yourself, move back one  generation and record the same information, but add death dates/places.  Look for documentation to support all of the dates and places that you record.  Documenting your sources gives your tree credibility.  Please know that doing your family tree is not something you can do in a weekend or even a month or a year...  To do it right requires ongoing research.  If you ask a hobbyist, they will tell you that they have been working on their tree for "x" number of years and they still aren't done with it.  

Genealogists are very expensive and they vary in cost and in expertise.  I would encourage you to type "professional genealogist" into a search engine and look at a few of them and you will see what I mean.  Please make sure if you hire one, that they have references. You might also want to see if they are certified.  No genealogist is going to be able to make you a guarantee that they will be successful. It truly depends on where your ancestors were from and what records are out there.

Good luck as you embark upon a fascinating journey.  Remember, if you tackle this yourself,  you have a sounding board here.  Take care.

Answer 3

First thing to do is go to Google and type in your last name like this   " Smith "   or your Dad's name   "John Smith "  If you are lucky someone has already started a family tree  and has someone in your family listed.  That will get you started. I belong to a web site with a bunch of people on it that does this, I can ask and get back to you tomorrow.  You will be surprised what you can find on the Internet.  But you have to put those little ''  on each end of the name.  Good luck