I would love to hire a professional; perhaps I would be finally able to break down some walls. However, I cannot afford one, and my personal feeling is we have the best researchers on RootsChat. While most(?) of us aren't professionals, I believe we have areas of expertise that other "general researchers" may not, because we can choose to join threads where we feel we can be of the most help.
Several RootsChatters have spent dozens of hours (if not more!) helping me with individual threads. One lady did brilliant work finding an English ancestor who originated in Amsterdam. One man found incredible information about my York, England ancestors. One of my threads went to 20 pages, as several people chimed in to help. Sandra appears to be very good in all areas (how does she do that?), but I can try to help with California (or Ontario, Canada) research, and I believe others (without including names) add their thoughts, research and findings in the areas they feel most knowledgeable, or because the topic intrigues them.
I would like to send a huge thank you to Sandra, who has helped me numerous times and to the many other RootsChatters who take the time to help, and to those who post a reply, just to say they can't find any answers, but they did try.
I agree with BumbleB - "genuine people who want to genuinely help everyone".
