My dad was showing me some family tree info yesterday and it got me interested again…I want my family tree and my husband’s, but dang, I have no desire to do the tedious research. Has anyone ever hired someone to do the research? If so, how, and how do you know if their research is accurate?
For example, my uncle, who did the family tree research my dad has, traced back to Northern Cherokee Minor Chief Joseph Raincrow, who apparently died on the Trail of Tears. Well, poking about genealogy sites, like…50 people on there all claim him as an ancestor. Which I suppose is possible, seeing as how that was many generations back from me. (Five, I think?) But from him down, there are craploads of variations on names. His daughter that I’m descended from went by Polly Dawn Raincrow, Mary L. Raincrow, Mary L. Renno, Mary Renneau, etc. etc. How do people keep all that straight?
Any reputable genealogy researcher will document whatever he/she finds for you, whether it’s through census, birth, marriage, death or other relevant records. If you hire someone, make sure that’s what he is providing before you hire him. Personally, doing my own research is far more rewarding than paying someone, but I’ve had to do that also.
Variations on names are common. Even something as simple as Colegrove (in my family) has been spelled Colgrove and Colegrave. Census takers have never been known for their spelling abilities, and of course some families deliberately changed spellings to obscure ancestry, as in the case of your ancestor transforming from Indian to French.
The only way to keep track of all this is through meticulous documentation. Without documentation, genealogy becomes speculation.
Another pitfall of the hired genealogists: They will trace your line back to someone with a celebrity surname, and then say that you “must be” descended from the celebrity.
One of my ancestors was from Germany, and surnamed Rudolf. A hired genealogist claimed that we must be descended from the emperor Rudolf I. A couple of problems with this theory: Rudolf I’s descendants are not named Rudolf, they are named Hapsburg. And between the 12th-Century emperor and my 18th-Century ancestor, there was a little 600-year gap that the genealogist never bothered to fill in. And if my ancester really was an 18th-Century German aristocrat, she would have joined a convent rather than marry a tradesman and emigrate to America.
I’d advise that you contact a local genealogical society, TroubleAgain, like this one in Florida. They usually know the dodgy from the reputable, and also include advertisements from researchers-for-hire in their magazines.
