Genealogists are experts who help trace your family’s lineage. They study and investigate family history and ancestry. Yes, it is a thing. But there’s the internet. Why would you need a genealogist when you can just use a genealogy website?
You might not know this, but working with a professional genealogist will help advance your family history research in ways you don’t even know. After someone dies without a will and heir, research or an estate settlement needs to be carried out; it is a professional genealogist that is called upon to conduct such research. They’re required by law to identify the heirs of the deceased. Keep reading for more reasons to hire a genealogist.
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You Get To Save Time
Learning about your genealogy is time-intensive. It’s more than just surfing for hints on websites. Not that you shouldn’t do that, but they don’t provide source documents that could verify who is or isn’t in your family tree. Those primary source documents contain marriage, birth, and death dates, parents, and offspring, hence, their importance.
Getting those records online is almost impossible, and they’re not so easy to find. You will run into challenges if you attempt to do it yourself and end up wasting precious time. A professional genealogist, on the other hand, has more experience and knows effective ways they compile all the sources you require for an accurate family tree.
When there’s a big event like a family reunion coming up, you will waste precious time trying to do all the research coupled with the fact that you have to also prepare for the event, which is also time-consuming.
Navigate Dead Ends
If you’ve attempted to spend time researching your genealogy, you would have at one time hit a dead-end which many people refer to as a brick wall that you’d need help navigating through. A reason why you might be stuck is because of your inability to find some new information.
Professional genealogists are experienced in solving any genealogical problems you might face and have the necessary skills necessary to get past them. From helping you search for an heir to tracing your lineage, they’re efficient in helping solve complex problems. These problems usually require detailed research in land, tax, and/or probate records, and there’s a high chance that those records can’t be found online. You could equally have been using the wrong method to find a solution, but with their technical know-how, they come in and help you make progress.
Help You Overcome Language Barrier
While researching your lineage, it is possible that you may have found all the major documents. However, there’s a high tendency that your ancestors migrated at one point. This means amidst the documents you’ve successfully traced, you may find some written in a language unknown to you, were handwritten, and you can’t seem to decipher them. Whatever the case may be, professional genealogists are very knowledgeable and are experts in translating or deciphering such documents.
To Help You Join A Lineage Society
Lineage societies are being mentioned here because they work as a great way for people to find their genealogy. There are lineage societies that offer exclusive membership to individuals belonging to a particular lineage.
However, these organizations need proof that shows a person actually belongs to the lineage they’re claiming. You would need documentation for that, and just doing some simple research does not cut it. When you hire a professional genealogist, they can help you secure those documents so you can proudly claim to be a descendant of your said lineage.
DNA Analysis
DNA tests have simplified many procedures in ancestry studies, and with the advancement in science and technology, genealogists have become more dependent on DNA analysis.
If you decide to look for the documents while researching your genealogy, where you would definitely need a professional to step in is for DNA testing and analysis. There are various types of testing depending on the problem at hand and knowing which test fits what you require from a specialist. Most professional genealogists have a DNA specialist on their team, hence, why you should hire one.
You Get To Save Money
Professional genealogists are experienced, and so they can easily identify the best ways to handle a problem, thereby avoiding unnecessary research expense. Their access to personal/public libraries, special databases, and a global network of professionals cuts down the need to travel and the cost of getting certain records.
In a bid to learn more about your ancestors, there is a whole lot you have to go through. You have to track down records and put down what you found. Doing these on your own is no easy task, but in collaboration with a genealogist, you can be certain that your research is accurate.
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