Can you pay someone to do your family tree?

Zascar

Appologies for the newbie question. It's my dads birthday and a suggestion was made to do his family tree for him. I really don't have a clue nor do I have the time. Are there people who can do this for you for a fee? Any idea how much it costs? I'm guessing its not cheap as I'm sure it takes a lot of time...

Any advice appreciated
Thanks

shanew

You can employ a professional genealogist to research you family tree, but like other professions they do have to charge by time. So basically the less you know the more it costs..

You can usually start off quite easily with what you know for your family details - parents, grandparents etc by searching for Birth, Marriage and death certs, then back to the 1901 and 1911 census returns. When you get back to the start of full civil registration (1864) it gets more difficult.

See the sticky at the top of this forum for some details.


Shane

Ponster

Zascar wrote: »

I really don't have a clue nor do I have the time.

The first bit is easy. You just write down the names of everyone you know in your family and quickly make a hand-drawn tree. Then you ask others in your family to add whatever they know. I'd expect that ever before you begin to look up genealogy sites and contact professionals that you'd have the names and DoB's of each of your 4 grandparents. Having your grandmothers maiden names would also be something that I'd imagine your family could come up with.

As shane said, you'll most likely get back to 1920 with family knowledge. The the census results will take you back another generation or two. Then it'll be time to start purchasing birth/marriage certs. if you get stuck in the 1860's then you'll be like a lot of other Irish who don't have earlier records. If you are lucky then you may get back to 1800. It usually depends on if your family were simple RC farmers or played another role in the community.

Are all 4 of your grandparents Irish?

shanew

another clue that's worth noting when finding out family details are people's occupations ... some professions and trades are listed in various directories (Thom's, Pettigrew & Oulton, Slaters etc) which can help the search. Knowing these may also help find the right family on the census returns.

Also the religion(s) of the families (required for parish records), if you are planning to go back before the start of Civil registration.


Shane

pinkypinky

Net result - you wouldn't be able to do it easily as a surprise for your father but as a collaborative effort, it could be a worthwhile family experience. Start with talking to the oldest people in your family and get them to remember their grandparents, etc.

You mentioned that you don't have the time to do it....well, it is a very time consuming thing to do, and even if you were to pay someone to do it for you, they'd still need to spend time asking a lot of questions before they could start their proper research. The last time I checked with Eneclann (which was a couple of years ago), they were charging a flat fee of a couple of hundred for the preliminary report and then an hourly fee thereafter.

annieoburns

You can do a lot of research just from your home. Also if any family lived outside Ireland there are better records such as the English and American censuses. Also you will find interesting bits at times in records of long sea journeys.

The first advice is to start with the living and interview them at length. I am always surprised at the extra details that my mother now aged 90 years will come up with. Also worth chasing after are old photos, medals, bibles etc. On my father's recent birthday, I was able to give him an album of old photos including ones taken of himself as a child that he had never seen.

Yes it takes a lot of time but it can become a lifelong hobby. The trail never seems to go cold!:)

Spanish Eyes

I agree that speaking with older relatives is a great start. Even if you do not have the time to do it yourself, it will be much easier on the searcher if s/he has some basic details - at least Grandparents.

I have just found my great grandfather on my mother's side. It was a trial believe me, but addictive. I know that is only baby steps, but I will find out more as time goes on. My great grandmother' maiden name is nowhere to be found, but she is on the 1911 census as being from Exeter in Devon. Must keep trying.

The recently released Parish records are what did it for me.

http://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/

I was fortunate that my paternal grandfather's family were Church of Ireland, and they had unusual names, so it was relatively easy to find them.

Just ordered my grandfather's birth cert online, and from there might be able to get more info including his mother's maiden name. The records in this country are not great prior to 1864 but we keep trying!!

annieoburns

let me know your Gran's maiden name.... I could check out the UK records for you? I have access to censuses and BMD index records are freely available.