Great video! I’d love to see a tutorial style video as to how you get started with a new client and how you structure the research, trees, DNA, documents etc…
I am a pro level, genealogist, without any certifications. I’ve helped dozens of people over the past decade to figure out their family history, free of charge. I have a firm grasp on countless strategies and techniques. I’ve helped people to solve impossible family mysteries. I want to pursue this with a level of seriousness, but I’m not entirely sure of where to start.
A good start would be signing up for a page on the Association of Professional Genealogists. It's somewhere around $60-100 per year, and puts you in the database for researchers. They also have downloadable layouts for client contracts and things like that.
Colleen Fitzpatrick (one of the big names in forensic genealogy) opined on this in a CZcams video. When she's interviewing job applicants, she asks them to describe the hardest genealogy case they've solved, and often it turns out to be something that she considers super simple, and not hard at all, so she can pretty much dismiss those job applicants. She also said that navigating the Ancestry database is low-lying fruit. To be a pro, you need to have expertise in using GEDmatch.
@JP Sholomith I'm guessing when you say you helped people solve impossible family mysteries they were only impossible for them to solve? If they were impossible mysteries then no one would be able to solve them!!! I think a fresh, unbiased, more questioning view, and not taking things said orally, passed down through the generations as fact it's extremely helpful in solving these problems. Often I've found that assuming certain facts to be true often means people are looking in the wrong place for the records that they are really looking for and that would solve the issues.
I see you are a member of Association of Professional Genealogists. The APG has a Business Practices member group and other groups that may be a good starting place for gaining insight on how others do marketing and client acquisition. Many genealogists build a recurring clientele that hires them repeatedly for new lines. Also, as a client source, you might join and participate in some of the local JGS chapters. But I am certain you have already thought of that.
Thanks! I had been living abroad for the past several years, and only recently returned to America. I am definitely going to check out more of the local resources and chapters, as well as the other stuff you've mentioned.
Nice. I've been doing aggressive genealogical research for several years and have thought about helping others through paid services. So far, just doing people's family trees for free and getting rather quick at it. I focus on Colonial Tidewater Virginia in which various planter founding families populated the South...however, at this point I've branched out and find the new discoveries interesting. Helps to have a real love of history, especially when mapping out the local/regional details that go beyond the summarized popular histories through families one researches. A matter of finding nuances and more delicate historical patterns. You make a good point regarding recession and the issue of genealogy being presumably low on the disposable income scale. Historically, families engaging in genealogy was a "rich man's game" but with so much informational access online, this has scaled down considerably. Anyways, enjoy the channel and subscribed.
It definitely helps that you have a niche! I've found that 95%+ of my clients have come to me for what I specialize in (Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry). So Colonial Tidewater Virginia is probably a great place to start for doing paid research.
Thanks for the video and sharing this information. I appreciate you being transparent and giving us an idea of of a possible income. First time to see an episode of yours and I’m a new subscriber. I look forward to watching more. I would love to become a professional and I’m looking into this. It’s been a hobby of mine for 20 years, I love it, and would enjoy doing this for others and be able to generate an income by doing genealogy.
Can you take us through one of your cases from start to finish. Leave out the exact details but I would like to know the step by step from the first phone call you got to the final paperwork and payment.
So, usually someone will email me with a genealogical problem they would like to be solved (e.g. "Where in Europe did my great-grandfather's family come from?") or general information about their ancestors and the desire to learn more. These are the steps that usually happen: 1) I take a look at the info they've sent, and determine if there is likely enough material here for a full project. If there is, I let the client know a reasonable timeframe for such a project (e.g. "15 hours of research"). 2) Once they agree to the hourly rate and number of hours, I draft a very simple 1-page contract outlining our research goals and notate the maximum number of research hours (e.g. "Up to 15 hours at $X per hour). I digitally sign and send to the client to have them sign and return. 3) I usually take a 50% retainer, which is deducted from the final expense. For instance, if the project ends up taking 10 hours instead of 15, they get billed at the end for 2.5 (since they alrady paid for half, or 7.5). 4) While conducting the research, I keep a folder with all relevant documents/records, and also a worksheet of any citations that will go into the final report. 5) Upon satisfactory completion of the research, I write a report, detailing the findings and citing any sources that helped prove them. I usually include the citations as endnotes, rather than footnotes (to keep the report clean). I then email the client the report, along with a final tally of hours/any additional expenses for ordering documents from archives and whatnot. 6) Upon receiving payment, I send the client a receipt, along with a Google drive folder with all the images of documents/records that were collected during the research. That way, they can have a visual representation of what was discussed in the report. I tend to mostly use contracts for jobs over 10 hours. If it's a 2-3 hour gig, etc, we'lll usually correspond via email and keep things simple. For smaller projects, I might not even write a formal report. For instance, if they are simply looking for one or two details about their family,
As far as the research itself, when starting out I charged anywhere from $25-35 per hour. So on average you can divide the revenue by an approximate rate to get an approximate number of hours. However, I also spent hours researching, shooting, and editing videos which helped me to market to and find clients, so the true number of hours is impossible to tell.
I really liked your video! I’m thinking about helping others to build their family tree. But anyways, my question is if you’ve ever had a client who asked you to build an entire tree out for them and if so, how many hours did it take?
It really varies depending on if you are adding all the cousins or not. Usually, I will do the research with a "working" tree, and then if they request a more comprehensive tree I will take a few extra hours to put all the details (dates, places, etc) in a good amount of detail.
What a great video, thank you!!! I am an aspiring genealogist, where did you complete training? Keep up the great work and look forward to more videos from you #newsubbie
I’m thinking of being a freelance genealogist. I’m not a professional by any means but have spent years doing research on a few different family trees and really enjoy it. How do I start … do I charge by the hour? By the project? Do I offer a ‘package’ with a set price - for example going back 5 generations on one tree and just the tree. Or maybe a different package including all documentation?
Whatever way you feel most comfortable that works for you! I personally charge by the hour, but some genealogists charge package prices and others that use a combination of the two. I just like to keep things simple, so that's why I do hourly. But there is no "correct" way to do it.
I’d be very interested to learn more about how you charge or bill for different jobs. I have just started doing this myself. I’ve learned a few lessons hard. Probably the thing I find the hardest is determining how much to tell someone a job will cost. How do you do that?
Great video! I’d love to see a tutorial style video as to how you get started with a new client and how you structure the research, trees, DNA, documents etc…
Thanks, that's a great idea!
Yes, I would love to see this as well!
I am a pro level, genealogist, without any certifications. I’ve helped dozens of people over the past decade to figure out their family history, free of charge. I have a firm grasp on countless strategies and techniques. I’ve helped people to solve impossible family mysteries. I want to pursue this with a level of seriousness, but I’m not entirely sure of where to start.
A good start would be signing up for a page on the Association of Professional Genealogists. It's somewhere around $60-100 per year, and puts you in the database for researchers.
They also have downloadable layouts for client contracts and things like that.
Colleen Fitzpatrick (one of the big names in forensic genealogy) opined on this in a CZcams video. When she's interviewing job applicants, she asks them to describe the hardest genealogy case they've solved, and often it turns out to be something that she considers super simple, and not hard at all, so she can pretty much dismiss those job applicants. She also said that navigating the Ancestry database is low-lying fruit. To be a pro, you need to have expertise in using GEDmatch.
@JP Sholomith I'm guessing when you say you helped people solve impossible family mysteries they were only impossible for them to solve? If they were impossible mysteries then no one would be able to solve them!!! I think a fresh, unbiased, more questioning view, and not taking things said orally, passed down through the generations as fact it's extremely helpful in solving these problems. Often I've found that assuming certain facts to be true often means people are looking in the wrong place for the records that they are really looking for and that would solve the issues.
Great video. Good luck to you in your business adventures. Yes, YT will helps some too.
Thanks for the encouragment!
Great video man, I suggest maybe adding more facial expressions because that adds a lot of emotions to it. Keep it up man!
I see you are a member of Association of Professional Genealogists. The APG has a Business Practices member group and other groups that may be a good starting place for gaining insight on how others do marketing and client acquisition. Many genealogists build a recurring clientele that hires them repeatedly for new lines.
Also, as a client source, you might join and participate in some of the local JGS chapters. But I am certain you have already thought of that.
Thanks! I had been living abroad for the past several years, and only recently returned to America. I am definitely going to check out more of the local resources and chapters, as well as the other stuff you've mentioned.
Nice. I've been doing aggressive genealogical research for several years and have thought about helping others through paid services. So far, just doing people's family trees for free and getting rather quick at it. I focus on Colonial Tidewater Virginia in which various planter founding families populated the South...however, at this point I've branched out and find the new discoveries interesting. Helps to have a real love of history, especially when mapping out the local/regional details that go beyond the summarized popular histories through families one researches. A matter of finding nuances and more delicate historical patterns.
You make a good point regarding recession and the issue of genealogy being presumably low on the disposable income scale. Historically, families engaging in genealogy was a "rich man's game" but with so much informational access online, this has scaled down considerably.
Anyways, enjoy the channel and subscribed.
It definitely helps that you have a niche! I've found that 95%+ of my clients have come to me for what I specialize in (Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry). So Colonial Tidewater Virginia is probably a great place to start for doing paid research.
Thanks for the video and sharing this information. I appreciate you being transparent and giving us an idea of of a possible income. First time to see an episode of yours and I’m a new subscriber. I look forward to watching more. I would love to become a professional and I’m looking into this. It’s been a hobby of mine for 20 years, I love it, and would enjoy doing this for others and be able to generate an income by doing genealogy.
It is definitely rewarding!
Can you take us through one of your cases from start to finish. Leave out the exact details but I would like to know the step by step from the first phone call you got to the final paperwork and payment.
So, usually someone will email me with a genealogical problem they would like to be solved (e.g. "Where in Europe did my great-grandfather's family come from?") or general information about their ancestors and the desire to learn more. These are the steps that usually happen:
1) I take a look at the info they've sent, and determine if there is likely enough material here for a full project. If there is, I let the client know a reasonable timeframe for such a project (e.g. "15 hours of research").
2) Once they agree to the hourly rate and number of hours, I draft a very simple 1-page contract outlining our research goals and notate the maximum number of research hours (e.g. "Up to 15 hours at $X per hour). I digitally sign and send to the client to have them sign and return.
3) I usually take a 50% retainer, which is deducted from the final expense. For instance, if the project ends up taking 10 hours instead of 15, they get billed at the end for 2.5 (since they alrady paid for half, or 7.5).
4) While conducting the research, I keep a folder with all relevant documents/records, and also a worksheet of any citations that will go into the final report.
5) Upon satisfactory completion of the research, I write a report, detailing the findings and citing any sources that helped prove them. I usually include the citations as endnotes, rather than footnotes (to keep the report clean). I then email the client the report, along with a final tally of hours/any additional expenses for ordering documents from archives and whatnot.
6) Upon receiving payment, I send the client a receipt, along with a Google drive folder with all the images of documents/records that were collected during the research. That way, they can have a visual representation of what was discussed in the report.
I tend to mostly use contracts for jobs over 10 hours. If it's a 2-3 hour gig, etc, we'lll usually correspond via email and keep things simple. For smaller projects, I might not even write a formal report. For instance, if they are simply looking for one or two details about their family,
Thanks for information!
It is my pleasure to share these things with you!
Thanks for sharing! Do you have an idea of how much time you spent to make that revenue?
As far as the research itself, when starting out I charged anywhere from $25-35 per hour. So on average you can divide the revenue by an approximate rate to get an approximate number of hours.
However, I also spent hours researching, shooting, and editing videos which helped me to market to and find clients, so the true number of hours is impossible to tell.
I really liked your video! I’m thinking about helping others to build their family tree. But anyways, my question is if you’ve ever had a client who asked you to build an entire tree out for them and if so, how many hours did it take?
It really varies depending on if you are adding all the cousins or not. Usually, I will do the research with a "working" tree, and then if they request a more comprehensive tree I will take a few extra hours to put all the details (dates, places, etc) in a good amount of detail.
What a great video, thank you!!! I am an aspiring genealogist, where did you complete training? Keep up the great work and look forward to more videos from you #newsubbie
Thank you!
All of my training was self-taught online, from trial and error and reading/watching videos.
I’m thinking of being a freelance genealogist. I’m not a professional by any means but have spent years doing research on a few different family trees and really enjoy it.
How do I start … do I charge by the hour? By the project? Do I offer a ‘package’ with a set price - for example going back 5 generations on one tree and just the tree. Or maybe a different package including all documentation?
Whatever way you feel most comfortable that works for you! I personally charge by the hour, but some genealogists charge package prices and others that use a combination of the two.
I just like to keep things simple, so that's why I do hourly. But there is no "correct" way to do it.
I’d be very interested to learn more about how you charge or bill for different jobs. I have just started doing this myself. I’ve learned a few lessons hard. Probably the thing I find the hardest is determining how much to tell someone a job will cost. How do you do that?
I just charge a flat hourly rate, and discuss with the client an estimate of the number of hours before we sign a contract.
I want to become a professional genealogist. I need to buy either a laptop or a tablet. Which do you think is better?
What do you currently do your genealogy work on?
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