My mom is getting kind of old and I thought it’d be neat to give her information about her family tree. I don’t have a lot of money and doubt I could find accurate information myself. Getting a genealogist to do it for me seems logical. Any idea how much a task like this would cost and where I’d find a good genealogist?
A lot depends upon how far back you want to go and how easy it will be.
Do you have an idea when your ancestors first washed up on these shores (assuming you’re posting from the U.S. or Canada)?
Genealogists will charge you an hourly rate, usually. And it takes a lot of hours.
I would contact a local historical society for a referral. Your public library will likely know their number. Alternatively, if you live in an area which has a Mormon church of some size in it, you could try at their library. They can make referrals there.
The best free website to check for this is http://www.cyndislist.com
depending on your situation, it might be easier to do it yourself. if you have access to a LDS (mormon) family history center, they can bring in all sorts of microfilms that will help you (census records, marriage licenses, death certificates). the easiest way to do it is to start with the most recent relatives, and work back. so ask mom what she knows about the family, and then her brothers/sisters, etc, working back, and making sure you get locations and dates.
it an addictive hobby but can be done on the cheap.
BobT and ubermensch are correct about it being less expensive to do it yourself and the accessibility of resources now days for you to do it yourself.
However, it is your lucky day. I’ve been working on my own genealogy since 1976 and started working on Rico’s after we got married. I’ve had several clients over the years but since it’s not my main source for bread, butter and a roof over my head, I can be bought rather inexpensively.
I’m cheep… there I said it… I’m cheep! 
I can do the work for you or teach you to do the research yourself and will charge a very minimal fee - I usually base it on a combo of what you can afford and what location/timeframe for the root digging.
My email is in my profile if you want to get a hold of me.
For references, see our homepage . We have over 28,000 names in our combined Gedcom.
Most professional genealogists will charge between $15-30 per hour, plus expenses. The more competition in a particular locale, the lower the rate.
This section of Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet will help you decided whether to hire a professional, and how to go about it.
But as others said above, you can do a lot of the work yourself and save money. The best books I recommend for beginners are The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Genealogy, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Online Genealogy (yes, they are different, and I recommend both).
Meanwhile, you can download Personal Ancestral File genealogy software for free at the LDS Church’s genealogy website.
The best genealogy websites on the Internet:
FamilySearch
Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
The National Archives: Genealogy (click on “Research Topics”)
Ancestry.com (requires paid subscription)
Good luck, and feel free to ask any questions; I am a genelaogist myself.
As I often tell people who come in to the library wanting to start a genealogical search, I tell them.
“You remember that old relative of yours who would talk on and on about people you’ve never heard of and you didn’t pay much attention to. Well, find that person and get them talking and take notes!”
DANG!
I feel sooo cheap now. It’s been several years since I last checked into the going rates. After reading “between $15-30 per hour, plus expenses”, I looked into it further.
I followed Walloon’s link This section then clicked on
How to Select a Professional Genealogist then clicked, Hiring a Professional Genealogist then scrolled through until I found the section How Genealogists Are Paid, skimmed through the different things that affect the rate a genealogist charges since I already know about those, skimmed the fee structures and finally got to the Hourly Raths…the section I was looking for. Here’s what it says:
I feel so cheap! I’m still charging $5-10/hr plus expenses. I’m obviously stuck in the '80s. <sigh> I suppose some people would be suprised I don’t have an '80s haircut now, but I just can’t decide what colors to put on the spikes 
I do it for the fun of it and I’m a root digging junkie. No reason to raise my rates. 
I’m not familiar with those particular Idiot Guides, but I use the other sites already mentioned. Cyndi’s List is one of my “bibles”, but I also recommend
RootsWeb USGenWeb Project The Olive Tree, Your First Stop Online.
I use the PAF software Walloon linked to, but I also use Family Tree Maker. It’s not free like PAF is, but it is a better program for printing off information. I mention it because you said you want to give this information to your mom.
If you’d please tell us what time period and location you will be beginning your research, I’m sure we all know more specific URLs to tell you about.
<slinking off to the corner, hiding my embarrassed cheap tail>
Kathy
First off, pay nobody until you know the basics. There is plenty of free information on researching your family available on the web at sites like www.rootsweb.org and www.cindyslist.com. These sites have tons of links and gobs of uploaded family trees.
I suggest first interviewing your mother and any other older relatives to find out any and all firsthand information. Write it all down or record it for future reference. Purchase a basic genealogy program such as Familytreemaker, which you can pick up for about $40 new, or buy an older version on ebay. This is the best way to store information as you find it.
Lastly: document your sources. Lineage is generally not worth the paper it’s written on without documentation.
Since I host a website on it, I’m going to have to pimp WorldGenWeb, a free resource for people doing genealogical information across the planet.
.:Nichol:.
I agree with other posters’ advice of interviewing relatives as a first step. Not only is it amazing how much information you can unearth, but I have been twice surprised in my own research to find a distant (and previously unknown) relative who had already gathered enormous amounts of data and were more than happy to share it.
By the way, I also use Family Tree Maker. It was recommended to me by dantheman and zev_steinhardt in this thread.
A pay site that’s very good for this kind of thing is Ancestry.com. But first, check your local public library and historical society library to see if they have a subscription to the site–a couple of years ago Ancestry picked a library in each state to give a free subscription to, so there may be one near you.
Another great free site is www.usgenweb.com (or maybe it’s “org”). This site has hosts for every state in the union (and most counties) and you can post queries, do research, and ask for lookups from other sources.
Thanks for the nod, Algernon. My dad is a geneologist on the side (a little more full time now, since he’s just retired).
Sorry, I haven’t finished my coffee yet. A followup to my earlier post on interviewing: Make sure you get ALL relevant info on every relative she can remember, including date/place of birth/death, FULL name, including middle names (these can become unbelievably important), maiden names, countries of origin, military service (I found an entire history of an ancestor contained in a wife’s affidavit in a Civil War pension record). Okay, think I’m done. Genealogy enthusiasts are somewhat obsessed, as you can see. OBTW, you will find that everyone you contact will be friendly and helpful, because they have gone through the same process you are about to embark on.
I’m a do-it-yourselfer with a lot of help!
That is, once you find some distant cousin who has also been doing some work, big doors suddenly swing open. Esp. when you find that short family history from the 1920s they have a copy of.
Be aware that a lot of information, esp. online is just plain wrong. Always check everything. Get copies of those birth/death certificates. Trust no one else’s say so.
This is especially true of the LDS’s Family Search material. It is full of sloppy, sub-amateurish work. (The census databases are more reliable, but there are still errors there. Order the microfilms and check them yourself.)
ftg is right. Always double check everything in census, birth/marriage/death records, and the local newspapers (which your library or local historical society probably has on microfilm.) And remember that records aren’t always totally accurate. They’re only as reliable as the person who provided the information in the first place. My great grandfater was not literate and only spoke French–which is why his last name is recorded with five (that I’ve found so far) different spellings in different records because it varied based on how it sounded to whoever was recording it.