Need some advice please

[JSGenealogy]

Hello,
I need some advice please on how this would be done. Some in my Family said I should help people in Family history and charge them for service.

Question is: 

How would one charge people in exchange for helping them find an Ancestor and Genealogy Documents? I not talking about a professional genealogist but someone private who help people with their Genealogy Research (finding their Ancestor, Documents, et,c.) in exchange for Money?

How would you do that or where would you begin? How would it be done?

[Lisajb]

Tell them to post on Rootschat? Loads of helpful people on here who can find things out and won't impose a charge

[Westward]

If you are charging people money to help them in researching their family - you are a professional genealogist. If I knew how to make money out of this I would do it myself.

Most family researchers help people find their ancestors/genealogy documents because they enjoy doing it. Given the wealth of information freely available - or available for minimal fees - there are very few making money from their research.

[Mowsehowse]

Tell them to post on Rootschat? Loads of helpful people on here who can find things out and won't impose a charge

Well said Lisa. 

[groom]

I have done a lot of trees for friends and family and wouldn't dream of charging them for my time. All I charge them for is certificates if they want me to buy them. One person whose tree I did gave me a bottle of wine and another took me out for lunch! 

It is very difficult to charge people that you know and most people probably wouldn't be willing to pay for the time it really takes. Perhaps ask those who are telling you to charge people for a service how much they would be willing to pay.

I know we all sound very negative, but there are a lot of people now who are quite experienced amateur genealogists (just look at people on here for a start) so unless you have qualifications I think you would find there is no money to be made from it.

[dawnsh]

There are lots of topics here about this subject or setting up a business and there are lots of opinions to go with them.

You've got to think about an hourly rate, will you charge for getting to places, what happens if there isn't a result, how much is it going to cost you getting 'professional' subscriptions from the likes of FindMyPast or Ancestry, are you doing something they really can't or won't do for themselves.

There are plenty of adverts in the genealogy magazines for people doing this.

I suggest you have a look at their websites and see what they offer and how you will compete with them.

[cemetery friends]

To pass on information [particularly for a fee] from commercial sites goes against their terms and conditions so if you use such sites they would challenge you and possibly bar your membership.

Certain organisations such as The Society of Genealogists state that if researchers are offering a search service they are not allowed to show membership of SOG as "qualification" in their adverts.

Many family history societies offer research at so much per hour which is carried out at reasonable rates. Organisations such as Devon and Cornwall Record Society and The Society of Genealogists offer day passes at reasonable rates if a person does not wish to purchase an annual subscription.

I would personally only use a researcher recommended by a FHS or the Association of Genealogists
& Researchers in Archives and suggest you join such a group.

[Treetotal]

I wish I had a pound for every person who has said that I could make money from Photo Restoration and colouring rather than doing it for free
 Like genealogy...it's a hobby that I enjoy and get an enormous amount of pleasure bringing peoples' old and damaged photos back to life.
If you enjoy helping people then you have the choice of how much you do and how often you do it, there is no pressure then if you take a wrong turn with your research.
Carol

[Westward]

To pass on information [particularly for a fee] from commercial sites goes against their terms and conditions so if you use such sites they would challenge you and possibly bar your membership.

This is from ancestry - their data can be used if you are a professional genealogist.

For the duration of your subscription, you may access the Websites only personally with an individual browser or mobile application (bots, crawlers, spiders, scraping and other automatic access tools are prohibited), use graphics, information, data, editorial and any other Content only for personal or professional family history research, and download Content only as search results relevant to that research.