OT: Can anyone recommend someone to do family geneology?

[Ranger Dan]

I'm interested in my family geneology, but have only poked around Ancestry.com thus far. I'm not interested in coming up to speed with where and how to research. How expensive is it to pay someone to do this? Do any of you have someone you can recommend?

 

[fairgambit]

I'm interested in my family geneology, but have only poked around Ancestry.com thus far. I'm not interested in coming up to speed with where and how to research. How expensive is it to pay someone to do this? Do any of you have someone you can recommend?

I can understand your reluctance to do it yourself, but I know of a few others who started researching on their own, slowly at first, and then became fully immersed in it, much as one would in trying to solve some complex puzzle. My cousin, now deceased, got into our family history and reported to me with great joy every little nugget he found. I could be wrong, but I'm not sure someone else would take the time to follow the various twists and turns. You might pay someone to do the basics, and maybe that's all you want, but I would rethink it and consider doing it yourself.

 

[LafayetteBear]

Ranger: I have a neighbor (Sue) who does this stuff. Sue is an English expat, and a stay at home mom with two boys in high school. Don't know how she charges for this, but my guess is that it can't be all that much. She loves this stuff. It's pretty much all done on the internet. Send me a PM if you want me to ask her about this, or give you quote..

 

[Ranger Dan]

Send me a PM if you want me to ask her about this, or give you quote..

Dumb question... how do you PM someone?

 

[ILLINOISLION]

I'm interested in my family geneology, but have only poked around Ancestry.com thus far. I'm not interested in coming up to speed with where and how to research. How expensive is it to pay someone to do this? Do any of you have someone you can recommend?

Ideally your great great great grandparents.....if only any of us were so lucky!

I fortunately knew all four of my grandparents but lost them over 13 years, 1966 - 1979. I wish I could have them back to ask what I should have asked.....

 

[fairgambit]

Ideally your great great great grandparents.....if only any of us were so lucky!

I fortunately knew all four of my grandparents but lost them over 13 years, 1966 - 1979. I wish I could have them back to ask what I should have asked.....

That's absolutely true. I let opportunities slip away and I now deeply regret it. For those of you who have have older family members, take the time to talk to them. Maybe even record the conversations. I'm sure they'll be happy you showed an interest and you will likely gain valuable information about your family history that might otherwise be lost forever.

 

[Stargellfan]

I'm interested in my family geneology, but have only poked around Ancestry.com thus far. I'm not interested in coming up to speed with where and how to research. How expensive is it to pay someone to do this? Do any of you have someone you can recommend?

I would encourage you to do it on your own. Ancestry.com is a great tool for researching your family. If you have an iPad, get the ancestry.com application. It makes it incredibly easy to access your information. Findagrave.com is also an excellent tool for research. It is actually linked to ancestry.

 

[PSU.:.]

My aunt did one few years ago and dug up a portrait of my great great great grandfather. He looked nearly identical to my older brother.

 

[Nittany Ziggy]

I suggest that you hire Amanda Duffner!

 

[psuguy04]

Dumb question... how do you PM someone?

Unless you're both paid subscribers here......you can't.

 

[Ranger Dan]

paid subscribers

Alas, I'm a freeloader...

 

[Fac]

Ideally your great great great grandparents.....if only any of us were so lucky!

I fortunately knew all four of my grandparents but lost them over 13 years, 1966 - 1979. I wish I could have them back to ask what I should have asked.....

I knew my 4 grandparents and 2 great grand parents (Dad's mom's parents). Everyone pretty much lived into their upper eighties and early nineties. Dad just died at 89 on June 1st.

 

[Michael.Felli]

I'm interested in my family geneology, but have only poked around Ancestry.com thus far. I'm not interested in coming up to speed with where and how to research. How expensive is it to pay someone to do this? Do any of you have someone you can recommend?

This pretty much sums up the origin of the human race and where we came from. ;-)

 

[spydersabich]

You really need to do a lot of it yourself. The stuff you find is fascinating and it's lifetime memories. When we first started looking into stuff we had a big pile of pictures from grandpa that no one could identify. One of the pictures was an old church sitting at the top of a long winding road. The back of the picture just stated "Swamp Church 1870 (I forget the exact year on the picture)" in what we thought was grandpa's writing. We were familiar with the Lebanon area where he grew up and could not find anything resembling it. Long story short my dad and I found out the family was originally from New Hanover, Pa. and that our family were members of an old Methodist church. On a whim we took a Saturday drive and ended up finding the exact place where my great-great grandfather took the picture of the church. We also found the tombstones of the first 2 generations of my family in America. You can't get that kind of memory from hiring someone. This past year we just found the approximate burial spot of my great grandmother (messy divorce and she basically dropped off the face of the earth). I found people from her new family and have had a wonderful correspondence with them. The next best thing is to go to your local historical society (or where your grandparents lived) and ask if they have a file on your family. You may find that someone has already done the legwork for you and you don't need to spend the cash to get the basics. Have fun and good luck

 

[Glen]

This was the year that I became immersed in the family history. I subscribed to ancestry.com and consider it money well spent. One of the things ancestry offers are the family trees. In all probability, someone has already done work on your extend family and some portion will be available for viewing. You are able to contact the owner of the tree. I have made several of those contacts and as a result have been able to collaborate on searches.
Death certificates from 1906 thru 1963 in Pennsylvania are avaiable online thru ancestry. While the cause of death may not provide a complete medical history of your family, it has certainly been eye opening.
Bottom line, the most costly part of the search is the amount of your personal time you will end up spending on the project. I am at the point where I look forward to the family reunion next month to show everyone the two large volumes of info I have developed. I actually came away with a heightened sense of pride in the family - they were very good solid people.

 

[PaRanger]

Researching your family history is really neat.

Interesting fact is if we go back 20 generations...........We are directly decended from over 1,000,000 people.........So you can see how we are all related more than we think.........AND consider the world's population in 1900 was about 2 billion........China and India ALONE have more than that today.....