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Old 02-22-2019, 10:41 AM
 
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I thought the price was crazy, too. I kind of figured they had access to sources I didn’t, but the things I read weren’t clear. They did say it was people in the area. I do have boots on the ground there, and she’s had no luck either.
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Old 02-22-2019, 02:28 PM
 
Location: NJ
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roselvr View Post
That’s him, but I’d bet my bottom dollar that ain’t her.

First off — the marriage year is the same as the Devilbiss/Ramsburg marriage. And my past research was Hans Michael, found two Anna Marias. Which in German families of the time means Anna Maria 1 passed away. AnnaMaria 2 was 10 years younger. I can’t imagine a 12 year old girl marrying a 31 year old man. Let alone a 31-year-old man marrying a two-year-old and her giving birth to next year just doesn’t going to happen.
Good to know that it's the correct profile. If I have free time I'll look it over to see what they did and how they got her name.

Have you looked on wikitree?

Have you done DNA yet? Doing DNA at ancestry and uploading to the free sites may help. You never know what kind of info some of your matches may have.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom View Post
I thought the price was crazy, too. I kind of figured they had access to sources I didn’t, but the things I read weren’t clear. They did say it was people in the area. I do have boots on the ground there, and she’s had no luck either.
I posted in a Hungarian DNA group to ask about Ancestry world subscription to see if they had something family search didn't and was told to keep my money. I have a feeling it's the same for what you need done. That is a lot of money! I'd rather be patient and see what records come online in the next few years that you could need and as I said, something may come from a DNA match. I have a few cousins where I'm not sure how we match, I've done trees for them just to track it myself to see if I get something they may not have.

I think posting his name here was smart because if someone googles him, the thread should show on google.
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Old 02-23-2019, 08:48 PM
 
Location: Ohio
24,624 posts, read 19,041,484 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallysmom View Post
I keep getting emails about the service, saw the price started at $1500 (I think) and thought it was too high, but I do have a couple of brick walls and occasionally think, hmmm.
That's way too high.

Search the web. There's a woman, I believe from New England, who has a most excellent video showing you how to extract family members from census records through 1840, before the names of family members were listed on the census.

Her methods work, because I've successfully used them.

Also, contact local genealogy and historical societies (sometimes they're one in the same), because they have extensive information.

That information often includes local genealogists who charge far less than $1,500 and who are more familiar with records in the area and how to get them.

Why? Because if no record are available, then it doesn't matter how much you pay a genealogist, you're not going to find the person you're looking for.

Why pay $1,500 to a "genealogist" who can't even get the records you need?

It really helps to know the area where your ancestor lived, and what records are and are not available.
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Old 02-24-2019, 06:22 AM
 
15,631 posts, read 26,117,738 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea View Post
That's way too high.

Search the web. There's a woman, I believe from New England, who has a most excellent video showing you how to extract family members from census records through 1840, before the names of family members were listed on the census.

Her methods work, because I've successfully used them.

Also, contact local genealogy and historical societies (sometimes they're one in the same), because they have extensive information.

That information often includes local genealogists who charge far less than $1,500 and who are more familiar with records in the area and how to get them.

Why? Because if no record are available, then it doesn't matter how much you pay a genealogist, you're not going to find the person you're looking for.

Why pay $1,500 to a "genealogist" who can't even get the records you need?

It really helps to know the area where your ancestor lived, and what records are and are not available.
Thanks, will look for that video.

I think you’re right though, having been in the area, and getting a little familiar with the historical society and library. The records I have are the records that are available, and published, and disbursed widely via ancestry sites. My thinking is the record I seek — the marriage record of Anna Maria and Conrad might not exist, and without that, all the guesswork in the world won’t lead me to the right Anna Maria.
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Old 02-24-2019, 09:04 AM
 
9,576 posts, read 7,234,957 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mircea View Post
That's way too high.

Search the web. There's a woman, I believe from New England, who has a most excellent video showing you how to extract family members from census records through 1840, before the names of family members were listed on the census.

Her methods work, because I've successfully used them.

Also, contact local genealogy and historical societies (sometimes they're one in the same), because they have extensive information.

That information often includes local genealogists who charge far less than $1,500 and who are more familiar with records in the area and how to get them.

Why? Because if no record are available, then it doesn't matter how much you pay a genealogist, you're not going to find the person you're looking for.

Why pay $1,500 to a "genealogist" who can't even get the records you need?

It really helps to know the area where your ancestor lived, and what records are and are not available.
Like you mention, I think nowadays with the internet and message boards and people just wanting to help others for free, most, not all, records could be found, if available. There's probably a ton of retired people and non-retired people for that matter, who just like doing genealogy as a hobby to help people.

It just comes down to how fast do you want the info, if it's even there. I would imagine if you paid someone, it might be quicker, than say you, yourself, doing it or another person helping you out for free. I'm sure the professionals do have some "tricks of the trade" or connections that might not be readily available to the average Joe, but for the most part, I feel people who are impatient and/or hate doing genealogy and have the money to spend, just hire these professionals and keep them in business.

Now, having said all that, I can see a situation, where you like doing the research yourself, but let's say you are living in the US and you are looking for church records in Europe, that haven't been scanned and translated and still are located in a book kept in a church. I could see spending some money (maybe $100), to get someone to look up the records across the pond for you and take a picture with their phone, especially if you have no connections over there. Could you possibly make friends online and have them do the "boots on the ground" work for you for free over there, sure.
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Old 02-24-2019, 09:24 AM
 
Location: Austin, TX via San Antonio, TX
9,843 posts, read 13,577,806 times
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Originally Posted by cjseliga View Post
Like you mention, I think nowadays with the internet and message boards and people just wanting to help others for free, most, not all, records could be found, if available. There's probably a ton of retired people and non-retired people for that matter, who just like doing genealogy as a hobby to help people.

It just comes down to how fast do you want the info, if it's even there. I would imagine if you paid someone, it might be quicker, than say you, yourself, doing it or another person helping you out for free. I'm sure the professionals do have some "tricks of the trade" or connections that might not be readily available to the average Joe, but for the most part, I feel people who are impatient and/or hate doing genealogy and have the money to spend, just hire these professionals and keep them in business.

Now, having said all that, I can see a situation, where you like doing the research yourself, but let's say you are living in the US and you are looking for church records in Europe, that haven't been scanned and translated and still are located in a book kept in a church. I could see spending some money (maybe $100), to get someone to look up the records across the pond for you and take a picture with their phone, especially if you have no connections over there. Could you possibly make friends online and have them do the "boots on the ground" work for you for free over there, sure.
It would be nice if there were people around like in "Who do you think you are" who just have all te books sitting there and have the answers for you at a snap of a finger or when someone says "Action!" right? But I totally agree. Facebook has actually helped a bit with my Czech roots.
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Old 02-24-2019, 02:45 PM
 
Location: NJ
23,790 posts, read 33,249,189 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cjseliga View Post
Like you mention, I think nowadays with the internet and message boards and people just wanting to help others for free, most, not all, records could be found, if available. There's probably a ton of retired people and non-retired people for that matter, who just like doing genealogy as a hobby to help people.

It just comes down to how fast do you want the info, if it's even there. I would imagine if you paid someone, it might be quicker, than say you, yourself, doing it or another person helping you out for free. I'm sure the professionals do have some "tricks of the trade" or connections that might not be readily available to the average Joe, but for the most part, I feel people who are impatient and/or hate doing genealogy and have the money to spend, just hire these professionals and keep them in business.

Now, having said all that, I can see a situation, where you like doing the research yourself, but let's say you are living in the US and you are looking for church records in Europe, that haven't been scanned and translated and still are located in a book kept in a church. I could see spending some money (maybe $100), to get someone to look up the records across the pond for you and take a picture with their phone, especially if you have no connections over there. Could you possibly make friends online and have them do the "boots on the ground" work for you for free over there, sure.
Go to FB and google the ethnicity genealogy you need. I belong to a Hungarian, Polish, German and English genealogy groups where there are people from all over the world who are happy to do just that if they live in the area.
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Old 02-27-2019, 12:45 AM
 
Location: VA, IL, FL, SD, TN, NC, SC
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On the price, it depends on how you think about it. Professionals tend to call themselves for that for a reason. Many spend a great deal of time and money attending training and conventions. For example, the one in GA each year is a week long deep dive into a single subject with lab assignments (as an example). Roostech this week is another, albeit less substantive in many ways. Most professional genealogist have one to three specialty areas.

If I was a professional genealogist I would not be able to just take what you had as a verbatim starting point, but would likely have to verify your information and sources before I could even attempt to move forward on your brickwall. Most professional genealogist I know in SLC target $25-50 an hour for their general research time and $50-75 in their specialty area. The ones I know in D.C. charge $35-75 for general research and $75-150 for their specialty areas. It is worth noting most specialty researchers also sub for other genealogist at a reduced rate. I mention all this to give you context. $2400 at 25 an hour is 96 hours, so call it two weeks. At $50 an hour it is 48 hours. In the Maryland D.C. are that $2400 would buy you significantly less. My points is, verifying what you have, doing original research, which in D.C. likely involves getting in a car or going to the Archives, researching the record available, submitting your pull forms, and then going back at pull time, likely for multiple days is very time consuming.

To be clear, I do not believe $1500-2400 is cheap, I am just trying to point out that if you want professional level genealogy the standard is a lot higher than a lot of the family trees you see constructed and Ancestry of Family Search. You are paying for a standard. Understand that in general, hiring a professional genealogist amounts to having them spend hours verifying what you already believe to be true.

If it were me(and it has been), I would do what I normally do. Genealogy vacations are awesome. Take the family to D.C. and while they are hitting the Smithsonian you can hit the National Archives. Almost every family vacation we take involves genealogy. $1500 to $2400 buys you a vacation. Do your own research.
I hope that helps.
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Old 02-27-2019, 12:42 PM
 
15,631 posts, read 26,117,738 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GhostOfAndrewJackson View Post
On the price, it depends on how you think about it. Professionals tend to call themselves for that for a reason. Many spend a great deal of time and money attending training and conventions. For example, the one in GA each year is a week long deep dive into a single subject with lab assignments (as an example). Roostech this week is another, albeit less substantive in many ways. Most professional genealogist have one to three specialty areas.

If I was a professional genealogist I would not be able to just take what you had as a verbatim starting point, but would likely have to verify your information and sources before I could even attempt to move forward on your brickwall. Most professional genealogist I know in SLC target $25-50 an hour for their general research time and $50-75 in their specialty area. The ones I know in D.C. charge $35-75 for general research and $75-150 for their specialty areas. It is worth noting most specialty researchers also sub for other genealogist at a reduced rate. I mention all this to give you context. $2400 at 25 an hour is 96 hours, so call it two weeks. At $50 an hour it is 48 hours. In the Maryland D.C. are that $2400 would buy you significantly less. My points is, verifying what you have, doing original research, which in D.C. likely involves getting in a car or going to the Archives, researching the record available, submitting your pull forms, and then going back at pull time, likely for multiple days is very time consuming.

To be clear, I do not believe $1500-2400 is cheap, I am just trying to point out that if you want professional level genealogy the standard is a lot higher than a lot of the family trees you see constructed and Ancestry of Family Search. You are paying for a standard. Understand that in general, hiring a professional genealogist amounts to having them spend hours verifying what you already believe to be true.

If it were me(and it has been), I would do what I normally do. Genealogy vacations are awesome. Take the family to D.C. and while they are hitting the Smithsonian you can hit the National Archives. Almost every family vacation we take involves genealogy. $1500 to $2400 buys you a vacation. Do your own research.
I hope that helps.
We did start, my sisters and I, but one has the attention span of a gnat thanks to a TIA, and the other is busy, too. They both understand it’s often hours and days and weeks poring over everything, to find that scrap of a lead.

It’s not their thing, although they celebrate my victories very hard with me.

I did try the Facebook group suggested, found my cousin is in it, and got the same post Roselvr posted, which shows exactly what a mess this tangle is. And nothing else.

It’s frustrating.

And you right about the price being worth it, but can you imagine spending that kind of money only to be told by the pro “Yep. That there is a brick wall. Big honking bricks”.
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Last edited by Tallysmom; 02-27-2019 at 01:45 PM..
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Old 02-27-2019, 02:53 PM
 
Location: NJ
23,790 posts, read 33,249,189 times
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Originally Posted by Tallysmom View Post
We did start, my sisters and I, but one has the attention span of a gnat thanks to a TIA, and the other is busy, too. They both understand it’s often hours and days and weeks poring over everything, to find that scrap of a lead.

It’s not their thing, although they celebrate my victories very hard with me.

I did try the Facebook group suggested, found my cousin is in it, and got the same post Roselvr posted, which shows exactly what a mess this tangle is. And nothing else.

It’s frustrating.

And you right about the price being worth it, but can you imagine spending that kind of money only to be told by the pro “Yep. That there is a brick wall. Big honking bricks”.
And in your case, that's probably what they'd say. Big brick wall, sorry; now pay us.
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