Editor's Note: This is part of a series by Michael John Neill, on hiring a professional genealogist. Part I and Part III are located in the Ancestry Library archives.
What do you expect from your professional genealogist? It should not be
the answer to your question. You may get it, you may hope for it, you may wear
your lucky T-shirt every day until the report comes in the mail (or until no
one in your family talks to you), but you may not expect guaranteed results.
Death and taxes are certain: answers to genealogical questions are not.
The research may very well answer your question explicitly. It may "suggest"
an answer. Or it may provide no answer at all. Genealogy is like life: not all
problems can be solved. What you should expect from your researcher is a listing
of the sources that were utilized, what items (names, time period, etc) were
searched for in those sources, what those sources contained, and what follow-up
research may be warranted.
Guaranteed Answers?
No researcher should ever guarantee that they will be able to answer your question
or to find your ancestor. Research is not like a high school math book where
the answers are in the back of the text. There are things that your researcher
should be able to tell you though. They may be able to tell you that searching
for a probate usually takes a certain amount of time, or that a census search
usually takes a specified amount of time. Of course, this depends on the legibility
of the records, the availability of indexes and whether or not your ancestor
is named in the records being searched. Statements regarding a certain task
taking a certain amount of time are reasonable. You want the researcher to set
these parameters, as you probably don't want them spending an unlimited amount
of time on any task.
Note that these statements refer to a search, not to specific results. In a
similar fashion, statements that so many ancestors can be obtained in so many
hours should be regarded with more than gentle skepticism. When you pay someone
to research, you pay for specific records to be searched, not for specific results
to be obtained. Every family is different and any researcher who has done enough
research to be offering services on a fee basis should know that genealogical
guarantees cannot be made.
Making Contact
The initial contact can easily set the tone for the entire research relationship.
It is best to get off to a good start. The first contact should provide the
researcher with at least the following information:
A summary of the research problem and a synopsis of the records that have
been used.
The desired goals of the research.
Initially it is not necessary to provide the researcher with a detailed discussion
of the problem or with a comprehensive list of records that have been used (although
this information should already have been gathered). You should inquire about:
Fees—Other expenses (postage, copies, etc.)
Retainer and payment requirements
Time constraints (the researcher may have current projects for other clients)
Familiarity with the records necessary to work on the desired project goals
References (if desired)
If the details provided by the researcher fit your situation, you should then
prepare to send them what information you have already located on the individuals
being researched. Before you send your material to your potential researcher,
find out when billable hours start.
Billable Hours
A discussion of billable hours is necessary before continuing further. To reduce
confusion and prevent a misunderstanding, ask the researcher when billable hours
start and when they stop. It will vary from researcher to researcher and should
be discussed before research begins. Billable hours may include:
Actual hours spent researching on-site
Time spent preparing an initial contract and suggested research outline
Time spent summarizing, reporting, and creating a list of follow-up suggestions
Time spent driving to and from the research site
The summary and report are particularly important, especially for those records
that are difficult to determine or are in a foreign language. They are extremely
valuable when conclusions are inferred from a series of documents that do
not explicitly state the desired fact.
Clarification
Most likely you will need to clarify certain items for the researcher you hire
before the research actually starts. In my case, there were several items that
needed clarification and the researcher wanted to make certain that she understood
the information and the structure of the family. I preferred to do this via
e-mail. It was faster than writing regular letters and provided a written record
that phone conversations do not leave. E-mail was also preferable to playing
phone tag.
In some cases, submitting a GEDCOM file to the researcher may be helpful. In
my case, I chose not to do this. I tried to order all copies of documents
in a logical fashion, numbering each page. Then, in a cover letter, I provided
citation information for each document and summarized the information contained
in each document and what I thought the information meant.
After that, I included a list of documents that I thought would be helpful
in solving my problem (visiting genealogy Web sites for the area under study
was particularly helpful). The researcher suggested a couple of other record
types that she thought would be helpful in this case. These were records I
had not used successfully in searching other branches of my family. However
in this case, given the fact that the time period was fifty years later, these
records were particularly useful. This is part of the reason for hiring someone
to do research—they are aware of sources that are appropriate for the time
period and geographic area where the problem is located.
It is important the researcher completely understand the information you have
sent. Having them summarize what you have sent serves this purpose very well.
Then you are as close to being on "the same page" as possible. It is even possible
that the researcher will notice something you have overlooked.
I also found it helpful to create graphic images of some documents, particularly
census records. I then uploaded these images to my Web site and gave the researcher
the URL where these records could be viewed. This was an immediate way to
send the documents to the researcher (although she did have a fax number,
uploading the files did not require a long distance call).
Hashing Out The Details
The researcher and I discussed briefly her interpretations of the information
I had sent and she then e-mailed me a copy of the proposed research agreement.
After a few e-mails debating some minor points, we had reached an agreement.
With e-mail we had a written record of our discussions and the conversations
took place over a much shorter period of time.
Letter Of Agreement
My researcher sent me the agreement, which I signed and returned along with
a retainer. We had a list of specific goals, the approximate time each goal
would take, and a total estimate of expenses, including copies and document
fees. It is important to set limits of copy fees, particularly if probates,
divorces, and other court records are being utilized. Some files may be huge
and cost prohibitive. (Years ago, I learned an ancestor had been sued. The resulting
file was several hundred pages long. Instead of paying the courthouse to copy
the entire file, I hired a researcher to go through the materials and copy the
genealogically relevant materials. I could not afford the entire file. The researcher's
time and expenses were approximately 25% of what the entire file would have
cost.)
The letter of agreement indicated approximately when the research report would
be sent to me. The researcher also indicated that brief intermediate summaries
would be sent to me via e-mail (after all, I was just dying to find out what
she had learned!).
Next in this series: Locating a Professional Genealogist.
Michael John Neill, is the Course I Coordinator at the Genealogical Institute
of Mid America (GIMA) held annually in Springfield, Illinois, and is also on
the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. Michael is the
Web columnist for the FGS FORUM and is on the editorial board of the Illinois
State Genealogical Society Quarterly. He conducts seminars and lectures on a
wide variety of genealogical and computer topics and contributes to several
genealogical publications, including Ancestry and Genealogical Computing.
You can e-mail him at: mneill@asc.csc.cc.il.us or visit his
Web site at: www.rootdig.com/
Copyright 2001, MyFamily.com.
Ancestry Daily News
