| Home | FAQs | Contact | Policies | Order | ||
 | | |
Site Menu:
|  | |
The Truth About Hiring a Professional Genealogist
| Frequently Asked QuestionsBelow are some of the most frequently asked questions concerning Ancestral Family Research and genealogical research projects. If you don't find the answer to your question here, please contact us directly.What services can I expect when hiring a professional genealogist?Where do you conduct family history research, and what kinds of records do you search?How often does research yield little to nothing?How many generations back can I expect you to take my family during a research session?Can you search my ancestors who lived in other countries? Can you locate my immigrant ancestor?Will you be locating my living "cousins?" I was adopted - can you help my find my biological parents?What software do you use to present me with your findings? Is it compatible with FamilyTreeMaker?*****************************************What services can I expect when hiring a professional genealogist?A professional genealogist should, first and foremost, be absolutely certain that your research goals are clearly understood, and that you have reasonable expectations of the results of your research project. If previous research has been done on your family, be sure that all of the available information is given to the researcher at the beginning of your project, to avoid duplication of effort and wasting of your research time. A skilled genealogist will be able to review and analyze previous research to determine the best way to proceed. In the case of a family that knows very little about its ancestry, an expert genealogist will begin the project by researching and documenting the family history to provide a strong, accurate foundation for future research. As more information becomes available, through the Internet and other resources, it is increasingly important to use a professional genealogist who can distinguish between the "good" information, and the "not so good." A professional genealogist should give you a timely, well documented report with suggestions for further research, if appropriate. You need to allow time for documents to be ordered, if necessary, which may delay your report, but the researcher should keep you informed as to any delays that occur. Remember that you are paying for the researcher's time and expertise, and that includes negative as well as positive research results. Where do you conduct family history research, and what kinds of records do you search?We use a variety of sources on the Internet, resources at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and records at government and local repositories. The types of records we search vary depending upon your research goals. These records and sources may include, but are not limited to:
How often does research yield little to nothing?No ethical genealogical researcher will ever predict or guarantee the results of a research project. However, very rarely does research reveal nothing about the family being searched. Those few cases are generally the result of an event that caused the family or individual to change their identity in order to prevent being found, and to sever all ties to their family. It's important to remember that negative results can be just as important as positive results in research. If your family is not found in the records of a certain time and place, it may mean one of several possibilities:
In many of these cases, other records can provide circumstantial, if not definitive, proof of the event. But, of course, there are instances when even thorough and painstaking research does not reveal the information being sought. Fortunately, this usually means that one individual becomes impossible to trace but other family members may be found. How many generations back can I expect you to take my family during a research session?This depends a great deal on the time frame and location being searched. United States official records for most of the 20th century (about 1930-1999) to the present are generally not accessible due to privacy laws. Some states will release vital records (birth, marriage and death records) to members of the immediate family. Research can be conducted in newspapers, city directories, and other public access records for this most recent time period. The earliest U.S. Federal Census open to the public is the 1930 census. If your family lived in the United States anytime between 1850 and 1930, they are usually found in these census records, which can often provide a good picture of your family (including children) for 4-5 generations. U.S. census records from 1790 through 1840 give the names of heads of households, which can identify a place of residence for those families. Additional record sources must be used to identify spouses and children. Prior to U.S. census records, or if your family lived in a different country, the availability of records varies widely, and every research project is different. Although absolutely no guarantee can be made as to what will be found during a research period, we have found that a 10-hour project generally reveals 2-3 generations if research is being conducted in U.S. records during the time period from 1800-1930. This is, of course, a very general estimate and your research may yield more or less information. Foreign research is considerably more time consuming, and averages only 1-2 generations per 10 hour project. Can you search my ancestors who lived in other countries? Can you locate my immigrant ancestor?Ancestral Family Research uses the resources of the Family History Library, the largest library of its kind in the world. The library Unless your family is 100% Native American, you have at least one immigrant ancestor. Researching and documenting your family, one generation at a time, insures that the correct individual can be identified. Thorough research of record sources in the United States is a prerequisite to continuing research in foreign records, in order to establish an accurate place of origin. Will you be locating my living "cousins?" I was adopted - can you help my find my biological parents?As a general rule, we do not conduct research on living individuals due to privacy laws. It is usually best to hire a private investigator to locate living individuals. "Descendancy research," or the tracing of all of the descendants of an individual or couple, can be done to the extent that living or recently deceased (within the last 50 years) individuals are located in publicly available records, such as city directories, newspapers, or the Social Security Death Index. What software do you use to present me with your findings? Is it compatible with FamilyTreeMaker?We currently use the Ancestral Quest software program for our data entry and printed reports. You will receive a copy of this program with your first research order. However, the database of your family information, at the conclusion of your research project, will be sent to you in GEDCOM format,
| |
|
Ancestral Family Research © 2007 | Home | FAQs | Contact | Policies | Order | ||
collection includes over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed genealogical records; 742,000 microfiche; 310,000 books, serials, and other formats; 4,500 periodicals; and 700 electronic resources. These records represent over 110 countries all over the world, and records are currently being microfilmed in over 45 countries. In addition to the records available at hand, we also use the services of professional genealogists with accreditation in foreign research, several of whom are available for on-site research in those countries.