We’re glad you’re here and interested in the services of a professional genealogist. We start most prospective clients off with a free 15-minute phone call, to discuss how our professional genealogist can help. Then, most first-time clients start with our entry-level package: 3 hours with the genealogist for $210. Want to skip the sales pitch? Go ahead and contact the genealogist to set up your introductory call.
If you have a “brick wall” family history problem, but aren’t yet sure yet whether you want to hire a professional genealogist, read on.
The Sales Pitch: Why Hire a Professional Genealogist?
We can help you get the most out of records and unlock your family history. That’s the short answer.
The long answer? Good genealogy involves deep research and analysis of all sorts of records. Think birth, marriage and death records, taxes and probate, deeds and newspapers, all likely in different online databases, libraries, repositories, archives and other spots. A professional genealogist brings together all these sources, documents them, and helps you make sense of the story they tell about your ancestors.
Think of a professional genealogist as your seasoned guide to family history records. We:
- Bring expertise in and access to a wide variety of resources, including most popular online databases.
- Conduct focused family tree research with speed and efficiency.
- Find, interpret and cross-reference a wide array of records, from both physical repositories and online sites.
- Give clients verified results that meet rigorous professional standards.
Some records are easy to get. Others can take specific requests and months of waiting, or might not be available at all. The services we can provide to you depend on the availability of records, research needs and goals, and your budget. We love to dive into dozens of repositories and records for clients, fully cite our research so it’s dependable, and write it all up in a handsome, illustrated multi-generational narrative. That’s kind of our thing.
But, projects like that can take a dozen hours or more of billable time. No one’s going to do that without building a relationship, getting to know us and getting to know that our work really carries the right price.
That’s why we start folks off with a free 15-minute phone call. (Reach out to us to begin the scheduling process for that first call.) We talk with potential clients, hear about their goals and challenges, and decide whether we can make progress toward those together.
Then, new clients can schedule our entry-level package: 3 hours with the genealogist for $210. We get to know each other better, we show you the value we bring, and then we take it from there.
What Can I Expect in 3 Hours with a Genealogist?
During a 3-hour starter session with the genealogist, we:
- Go over your existing research. Before the session, we’ll ask for copies of any family notes or family group sheets you have so we can prepare. We’ll also ask for important names and dates for people or families being researched. Getting as much information as possible to us beforehand helps you reduce this back-and-forth and maximize your time with the genealogist.
- Work up a specific research question. This can help us focus our time together to the person, family, document or record you want examined.
- Get to work making breakthroughs. Again, 3 hours isn’t much time, but you might be surprised at what an expert can find (or help you find) in a short time. In fact, we know you will.
When our 3 hours ends, we think you’ll want more. But if you don’t that’s fine too. We’ll leave you with a research log of our progress, and you can use that to track and make sense of your own findings on Ancestry, HeritageQuest or wherever you research. If you do want more, you can book further research at a rate of $75 per hour. That time can be the genealogist offering expert guidance on your own continued research or the genealogist researching independently on your behalf (with periodic check-ins, of course).
We’re pretty flexible. If, after 3 hours you think, “We’re making such great progress, but I could really use another hour,” we’re happy to continue. We’ll work with you toward your research goals whether it takes 4 hours or 40.
I Want a Really Nice, Well-Researched Family Tree Book. What Does that Cost?
We love that you want that, and we want that for you. Our in-house genealogist really jams on projects like this.
We bid bigger research projects individually at a rate of $75 per hour plus reasonable expenses billed to the client. The number of hours involved depends quite a bit on project scope and complexity, research goals, budget, difficulty finding important records, and other factors.
Contact us to talk about what you have in mind and how we can help make it happen. We’ll give you a good-faith estimate, talk budget constraints and go from there.
Click here to see a sample of the type of genealogical research reports we produce.
Big projects like this usually include:
- A PDF report, thoroughly footnoted (and we mean thoroughly). We can work with a publisher for a physical book, though publishing costs extra.
- A detailed research log documenting all results, both positive and negative.
- Charts specific to important or emphasized ancestors and families.
- A narrative detailing the life of a specific target individual or family.
- Suggestions for future research opportunities.
If you have any other questions about projects or our genealogical research services, feel free to email us or just contact us to book a quick call.
Professional Organizing | Genealogy Research | Writing & Editing