Hiring a professional genealogist is a significant step to pursuing your genealogy and preserving it in a valuable way to your family and future generations. However, when looking for a trustworthy family history research expert, you must follow the due process to ensure you get great value for your money and have peace of mind.
There are a myriad of tips to follow if you don’t want frustrations, but they all fall into three categories: your needs, the type of person you want to work with, and the manner in which you want the research conducted.
This guide highlights everything you need to know to choose the right professional genealogist for you.
How Do I Hire A Good Genealogist?
There’s no one-for-all recommendation when hiring a professional genealogist, but ensuring that your chosen professional is accredited and understands our expectations is one way to avoid frustrations.
A good professional genealogist will also depend on your preferences and needs. Finding a veteran expert in your target area, time period, and research problem could be more rewarding than working with a jack of all trades.
Tips for Hiring a Trustworthy Professional Genealogist
1. Set Clear Objectives
Setting a clear objective is the first step to finding an excellent professional genealogist. You need to understand what you expect from them or the research to maximize your ability to scrutinize the many options that will come your way.
Most of the common objectives clients present to genealogists include the need for a well-structured and verified family tree, an in-depth look into their haplogroups, determining the origin of some minute heritage results in their DNA, or providing a comprehensive narrative that covers their family history and interprets events in their heritage.
You, too, need to clearly and precisely understand what you want at the end of the research. This way, it will be easy to tell if the professional genealogist you want must be specialized in specific research techniques, time periods, or locations.
Understanding your needs will also help determine the deadline you should set for your research. If you plan to present the comprehensive genealogy report in court or at your upcoming family gathering, you need to know the availability of your preferred genealogist. Are they working full-time?
Besides, you want to know how long it may take to complete the genealogy research and whether they can meet your deadline. Ticking these boxes will help you eliminate many options at your disposal and remain with those readily available or charge some extra fees for rush service.
Talking of extra fees, your budget is also to consider if you don’t want a headache working with a professional genealogy. Rates can vary across professionals based on factors such as project type, location, experience, and time constraints.
Ensure you understand all the charges related to your genealogy, including additional expenses like travel and photocopies. Ask for a breakdown of all the available packages, whether for consultations, flat rates, or hourly rates.
2. Focus on Expertise and Network
Hiring a professional genealogist is like hiring any other professional. So you must pay keen attention to their expertise and reputation in the field. Simply put, a professional should know what is expected of them, understand clients’ needs, and deliver quality on time.
The professional genealogist you consider should be registered with the Association of Professional Genealogists. They may also possess a degree in family history or any other relevant field, not to mention accreditation and certification from the appropriate authorities.
While many will tell you that expertise or accreditation is not everything, ignoring them could be the beginning of your tribulations.
Besides the certification, your preferred genealogist should have a vast network of other professionals who complement his research. Resources such as genealogy societies and partnerships with national archives and libraries are an advantage, especially during record search and research verification.
A network with other genealogists beyond the state, country, or continent can help expedite the process if it involves traces from around the world. It also saves much of your hard-earned cash that would have been spent on travel to these foreign archives or destinations.
Most importantly, hire a genealogist with a specialty in your time period, locality, or topic, such as southern colonial research. If you think your research will involve foreign languages, be sure your chosen professional genealogist is adept at this.
If you have concerns about their reputation or delivery, do your due diligence and read their published works on flyers, listings, or websites carefully. You can also contact their references to get a glimpse of what to expect.
3. Make a Wise Decision
Once you have a professional genealogist who meets all of your requirements, be sure to seek an audience with them to learn their personal perspective on their works and terms. A professional with perfect interpersonal skills and honesty about expectations should be the go-to option rather than an authoritarian.
Before you finalize your hiring process, ensure that you set the record straight on your expectations regarding the communication frequencies and the condition of the final product. Create mutual understanding with the professional about how to collaborate and make the forthcoming endeavor successful.
Most importantly, consider putting all your agreements into writing and spelling out all the goals, scope of work, payment terms, and other expectations. Also, be sure to maintain contact with the professional genealogist to avoid any problems along the way and clarify or emphasize any missed expectations.
It’s worth noting that expected outcomes are not guaranteed, so it’s wise to agree with the expert on a project rather than a result basis.
Hire a Professional Genealogist
If you understand the objectives of your genealogy research, you can quickly tell the best professional genealogist to work with and the appropriate package to settle on. Setting clear objectives streamlines the entire process as the genealogist will know the necessary time to allocate to different sections of the project and the most reasonable possible deadline.
However, you also need to do some due diligence on several professionals who pop up to ensure you choose the one with a good reputation, who specializes in your target research problem, and who has a personality you like.