You can find researchers on Ancestry, as I recall. The guy I hired lives in Germany, speaks both English and German, and reads Old German. His rate was $120/hr IIRC. If you send me a PM, I can give you his contact information.
My only ancestor of note was a musician. He was a bandleader during the Civil War. Bands would play while the soldiers marched, or camped, or before a battle. I’m not sure what Confederate unit he was attached to. My mother’s cousin has all the physical documents. I do know we have a letter from him sent while he was making his way back home after the war. He talked about meeting a little Yankee girl along the road and she gave him a flower. There’s a family legend that he wrote the music to “Dixie” but I did some research on that and find it highly doubtful.
There’s also a legend that we are somehow related to Pocahontas. I don’t know if there’s actually any evidence of that. I’m supposed to inherit the genealogy from my mother’s cousin, who lives across the country and has done all the research. I’m looking forward to seeing what she has.
30 shillings in 1650 is about two weeks wages for a craftsman. What the ‘bane’ referred to here is, I have no idea.
Good to know. Thanks.