Competitors

Of course, if you were to believe the recent spate of TV programmes (Who do you Think you are?) then you will know that you can trace your family history with a subscription to Ancestry and over a cup of tea in front of your PC.  In fact so many people believe this that they have set themselves up in business to provide a service tracing family trees at a fixed price.

So why not I hear you ask?  Well, of the 3500+ people in my tree only about 2000 of them actually fit in the tree the rest are disconnected as there is insufficient evidence (and I use that word advisedly) to state that they are members of the family.  One of the problems I have seen with on-line research is that assumptions are made about who fits where and trees are built that have no basis in fact.  Certain key things would be a woman’s ability to produce a child (roughly every two years in some cases) beyond their 50th birthdays – a feat extremely rare today let alone 150 years ago.  How a family can all be born in one area except great uncle Fred who was miraculously born 300 miles away.  Reading the Transcriptions as if the Transcriptions are “fact”.  Even the transcription of my birth in the GRO is incorrect and my Mother’s maiden name is misspelled!! So all of these things are why you would employ someone like me who actually uses the records, the evidence, the possibilities that what you are given may be incorrect and by applying strict rules to the evidence can confidently state whether someone actually is a relative or not.  In this respect NOT JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS is paramount.

The eBay types and one page web sites (you can tell those who don’t give you a telephone number or address) will have you believe that they can give you a three or four generation family tree for £90 or can do research and look-ups for £3 each etc.  They are commoditising something that can hardly be commoditised.  Perhaps a look-up can be priced this way but ask any Record Agent what you’d actually get for £3 work these days and again, you would find that what you want looked up will be played directly back without any real value being added for your money.

Additionally, there are those who do genealogy for a hobby and sell their spare time to undertake research for you.  I can understand that and the problem is again one of perception of the business.  Those who have to make a living cannot compete with those who don’t have to run and office, phones, corporate fee structures, copyright and other fees payable, data protection act compliance etc.  So the £6/Hour is fine for them as it is a bit of “pin” money.  They enjoy what they do and you’ll probably get a very good personal service but you are dealing with a part time worker who’s only customer this year might be you.  You’ll probably get good value for money from a hobbyist as they will take on your family with the same determination as their own in trying to sort out your records.

DIY is fine – researchers are there to help you when you need it.  The problem facing the DIY is that it isn’t a full time piece of work and you have to keep coming back to it and remember what you did last month.  A researcher is doing this sort of work full time, has well kept records and can pick up very quickly on where they are with a problem.