RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: jillruss on Saturday 06 October 18 12:20 BST (UK)
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I keep meaning to ask this - has anyone used, or received an estimate for the cost of using, this professional researchers service of Ancestry's?
I have a few brickwalls, including a couple which are looking insurmountable, but I'm not going to pay the earth to solve them!
I have, in the distant past, also used private researchers and those based in county archives and they never come up with the goods but merely regurgitate in a different form the facts that you've already given them! Either that, or they give you information about people with the same surname who aren't in any way relevant to the brief. So, I'm sceptical to say the least. :-\
I'd be interested to hear people's experience of using the Ancestry service.
Jill
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Hmm, don't know anything about Ancestry's researchers............. I'm of the opinion that you are best doing your own research.
When you think about it, what are professional researchers doing that you couldn't do for yourself?
I accept that for some people getting to Record Offices etc can be difficult due to the distance involved plus any other problem.
This is where Rootschat comes in isn't it? It's worldwide and therefore offers people who can look things up for you as they happen to live in the right place. ;D
Have you asked on Rootschat for help with your brickwalls in the past?
Personally I would save my money and ask the Rootschat community first. One has to accept at times that the piece of information you are looking for just isn't there to find or has yet to be made available.
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Although I have not had need to engage a researcher myself, the usual advice is to use one accredited by the Association of Genealogists, they have to abide by a code of conduct.
https://www.agra.org.uk/membersearch
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If you have used "those based in county archives" and they didn't find the records then ancestry.com is not going to have anything..... my suggestion is you are looking in the wrong place/county, maybe looking for 'what fits' and I say this as we are emotionally involved with our ancestors and because of that we make emotional decisions of what they would do, where they would be ( or not) I have done it mayself on a couple of brickwalls of many years.
Once broken and another researcher else did that as they clinically followed the records and didn't hold onto any emotional baggage or 'what fitted' about the individuals.
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I assume they are on a par with plumbers. After being quoted £148 for fitting a toilet tank inlet valve, I bought a £10 adjustable spanner, £6 valve, watched YouTube, and did it myself. 'Er indoors was very impressed. She still won't find my great grandmother''s parents though!
Jill, have you fully asked here? Researchers, like consultants will borrow your watch to tell you the time.
Martin
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Thanks for the replies. Loved yours, Martin.
Yes, I've asked on here for help with these brickwalls - often more than once - but they remain steadfast and insurmountable. I should imagine we've all got them!
I've been at this a good while now and think I'm pretty good at it - she said, immodestly! :-[ Of course I prefer - probably like most of us on Rootschat - to do my own research. Its a buzz when it goes right but its awfully frustrating when it doesn't!!
The main reason I asked about the Ancestry service is because I keep getting emails from them about it. This is ever since I took their DNA test. I just thought I'd ask for other's experiences of using it but perhaps no one on here has done so.
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MY thoughts ---- :) bin the emails :) sales sales sales :)
xin
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Hello all yes i did ask them once over 1000 dollars was the answer Brexit was to blame
when i said that we had not got Brexit yet i was told it was to do with the pound against the dollar?.
So don't even bother.
I agree with some of the posts about useing private research i have done it a couple of times
and have been very disapointed getting info i did not ask for such as will's i did not want, them
saying but you need them it shows relationships,all very well but then it is further research and more money on top i give up.
I will have to live with my brick walls a bit longer.
regards tobyma123. :)
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I will have to live with my brick walls a bit longer.
regards tobyma123. :)
I think you're absolutely right - $1000 indeed!! Not sure what that is in pounds but I was thinking £30 or so for an hour!! I really can't see what Brexit has to do with it!
I broke down a couple of huge brickwalls via DNA testing so I'll certainly stick to my own devices!!
$1000 - I don't believe it! (said in my best Victor Meldrew voice!!) :o :o
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Hello jillruss you could have bowled me over with a feather as the saying goes.
Rate of exchange i think they meant ,you could not make it up.
Okay for some rich person.
regards tobyma123. ::)
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I've not tried professional genealogists in the UK, but I did use a Belgian company who tracked down my Belgian great grandparents for me and gave me a lot of details and copies of certificates, as well as maps of locations and so on.
It wasn't cheap, but I've always wanted to find out about my Belgian ancestors (one half actually originated from Southern Holland), and it was really difficult given I didn't know where/how to look for the records or how to translate them when I did.
I've also found out a lot about cigar making - in Europe and the UK - as a result :) :D
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If the Ancestry Pro's are only using the resources available to them via Ancestry, then hold onto your pennies as your research is most probably better than theirs.
I suggest that they are hoping to find people new to the hobby who may be cash rich but time poor, who want instant results, and then don't want to pick holes in it and take it as gospel.
I've seen some reports written by so called professionals who make a mistake at the first hurdle and then go off in a very costly manner, wrongly thereafter.
Sometimes we have to admit defeat as the records we may be hoping for simply do not exist or have not survived the passage of time.
However, with datsets going online all the time and gems being newly re-discovered in archives up and down the country, your brickwall may come down in the future.
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Wise words Dawnsh
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I've never used a professional genealogist, but my adopted brother did after he was able to get hold of his original birth records and didn't know how to proceed further. The researcher reported that the birth mother had married and emigrated to Australia in the 1940s, but that he hadn't been able get any further back than that. Actually when my brother and I put our heads together (and with a great deal of help from RootsChat and Rootsweb :)) we discovered that the mother had not gone to Australia, although admittedly her name was on the ship's passenger list, but had run away from her abusive husband and joined relatives in Canada. We were able to make contact with a living relative out there, my brother was able to speak to his birth uncle, who fortunately was something of a family history buff himself, and photos and family history were emailed over.
As far as local Record Offices go, I must have been very lucky, having found Huntingdon RO really helpful and not very expensive, though this was in the days before they were swallowed up into Cambridge RO. They have sent me Parish Register register entries and have sorted out one or two sticking points for me. Rochdale Local Studies (Touchstones) have been equally helpful and inexpensive.
It sounds as though Ancestry have dreamed up another way of making money after the DNA palaver. They are unlikely to have access to more information than you have already discovered for yourself. Don't do it!
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Hello all what brilliant comments as always.
Let it be a warning to people just starting out on their family research there is a lot
of info out there on different sites, and it is free.
I have sometimes found stuff out there without the help of the pay sites.
regards tobyma123. :)
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I've used a Professional Genelogist twice, and paid a FHS to do research once.
First for Railway Records - it's a niche area to research, and it was well worth paying a Railways expert to search TNA for me.
Then I paid the Channel Islands FHS to do some research - again, well worth the money.
Finally, trying to get the family's Twins record accepted by Guinness World Records, It was necessary to pay a Genealogist to confirm my paperwork. Guinness like "experts" with letters after their names! ;D
(Most of you will know my story; we have 4 successive generations of twins!)
Maybe I have been lucky, but I have always had good service; and good value for money.
Nowadays I am in the opposite situation! Offering my services for research at The Manx Museum ;D
I certainly try to offer value for money ;)
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I spent 15 years trying to find my great great grandfather - with the release of the 1939 register, I am 99.9% confident that I have located him. Very common name, left South Wales and ended up in London. The single family story I was told by a distant relative has proven correct (however improbable it sounded). I am very doubtful that a professional genealogist could have located him prior to this as the only thing I had to go on was that he died in London and was buried in a paupers grave. William John Hughes from South Wales just didn't want to be found!!!!
I've spent the last few weeks writing and e-mailing random people in the hope that they are his children from his second marriage (no luck yet, but I am hopeful).
Once I confirm him, it's just his errant father that I need to find. I have a 20 year period to cover, another common name, and no idea where he died!!!
Luckily, people on here are fantastic. The service this site provides is worth so much more than any service you could pay for. I've found cousins on here simply because I've put a relatives name in the thread and they've googled the name at a later date.
It was brilliant - my cousin worked for a firm of solicitors that I used through work. I recognised her name, but couldn't place it.......until I looked at her firm's mousemat sat on my desk :o :o :o :o
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I agree with everyone's comments... the buzz of finding the information yourself is great and sometimes taking a leap of faith or gut reaction can turn out to be correct as only you have all the facts to hand.
It's not possible for a hired genealogist to know everything you know about your family or make the connections with names that pop up you recognise.
Having said all that I have a Swiss great grandfather and although all those with that surname in the U.K. are relatives trying to find out about the Swiss side proved virtually impossible to research unless you knew how to uncover their systems.....
One of my cousins hired a genealogist in Switzerland to do this for us and she was able very easily to find all the information going back to the 1600's... in doing this research it turned out she was actually related to us so not only helped us but her family too...
I think my cousin got a reduced rate because of her discoveries and met her when he visited our family home in Bern.
Small world and on this occasion very useful.
Caroline
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If the Ancestry Pro's are only using the resources available to them via Ancestry, then hold onto your pennies as your research is most probably better than theirs.
Agree with this wholeheartedly! I reckon the reason you haven't had much luck with professional services is because you're a good researcher yourself - they're just repeating the hard work you've already done.
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If the Ancestry Pro's are only using the resources available to them via Ancestry, then hold onto your pennies as your research is most probably better than theirs.
Agree with this wholeheartedly! I reckon the reason you haven't had much luck with professional services is because you're a good researcher yourself - they're just repeating the hard work you've already done.
Do you know? I'd more or less come to the same conclusion - immodest as it seems! :-[
I take Caroline's point that researchers in a specialised field or geographical location could be extremely helpful but my major brickwalls are British through and through. I suspect something will come to light as time goes on and more records become generally available.
On the bright side, I have never been known for my patience but its one asset that genealogy has certainly given me. So, not all bad...
Thanks for all the comments. I shall leave the 'professionals' to their own devices!!!
Jill
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I've not tried professional genealogists in the UK, but I did use a Belgian company who tracked down my Belgian great grandparents for me and gave me a lot of details and copies of certificates, as well as maps of locations and so on.
It wasn't cheap, but I've always wanted to find out about my Belgian ancestors (one half actually originated from Southern Holland), and it was really difficult given I didn't know where/how to look for the records or how to translate them when I did.
I've also found out a lot about cigar making - in Europe and the UK - as a result :) :D
I have some German/Prussian (now Poland ) ancestors and this would be a reason for me to utilise the services of somebody in the field in the area.
Otherwise I am happy to slowly build my UK family myself
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Hi DavidG02
I´m not a professional, I´m not in the field, and i´m not in the area, but i have done quite a lot of research in Prussia/Poland.
Give me names, places and dates - who knows :)
Dave
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I take Caroline's point that researchers in a specialised field or geographical location could be extremely helpful but my major brickwalls are British through and through. I suspect something will come to light as time goes on and more records become generally available.
A decent specialist who can look at workhouse records, prison records etc., stuff which isn't readily available online, could help smash down some brick walls. For parish records and censuses, I'd save my money and get the rootschat community to help.
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I assume they are on a par with plumbers. After being quoted £148 for fitting a toilet tank inlet valve, I bought a £10 adjustable spanner, £6 valve, watched YouTube, and did it myself. 'Er indoors was very impressed. She still won't find my great grandmother''s parents though!
Jill, have you fully asked here? Researchers, like consultants will borrow your watch to tell you the time.
Martin
Sounds about right. I think that the main thing is to keep following leads and ideas and keep asking questions in various places. By doing so, others have led me to information that I should never have found otherwise.
Though an anathema to some genealogists, it should also be mentioned that inductive methodology can actually help to find facts that deduction from presented data alone would not.
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Sometimes posting on topics opens up possibilities. Thanks to davecapps I now have a possibility to chase down
Thanks Dave