Genealogy Chat

A colleague has asked me to complete his family tree for his Dad's 70th birthday. He has offered to pay me the going rate... but what is the 'going rate'?!

I presume he wants a standard trace, any ideas?

A professional genealogist would charge between £15-25 an hour, plus costs of certificates, travel etc.

If you already pay for access to records online, then you can work out an hourly rate to suit you, if you just use what's available on whatever site you use ( ie without buying certs) .

If you enjoy doing genealogical research why not be a nice guy and do it for free, just charging your colleague for what it costs you, eg. certificates, travel expenses etc.

Now, I'd agree with Margee if this were a family member or close friend and it was a gift for a special occasion -- but otherwise, I might not want to volunteer myself for free! If my hobby were designing and sewing clothing, it might be my hobby, but when it's done for an unrelated third party, it's kind of work!

If you do take money, though, you have to be careful about the product.

That's the trade -- if somebody pays for something, they want to be assured of quality. Which is precisely why we often prefer to pay for services. ;-)

You needn't charge what a big company would charge. I've heard a figure of 250 pounds (plus certificates etc.) from someone who does it as a small local business. You could even get a couple of quotes by contacting sources as a potential customer, tell him what the average going rate is, and knock off as much as you like for a favour.

Even if someone did want to do it all themself rather than have someone else do it, imagine what a subscription to a single database site like this one or Ancestry would cost, just for starters!

I have done some research and charged for it. I don't try to make a profit, but want to show some reward for my time.
It depends what information is required and what can be found. With one tree I only managed to find 30 people due to missing records. It only took me a couple of evenings and a charged £50 plus certs.
On another I ended up with 250 people without buying certs. A delighted customer who was happy to pay £200 for that.

It is important you find out from them before you begin exactly what they want or expect to get. We all know a tree can go on for ever.

I hope that you will be able to guarantee the accuracy of the 'tree' you produce...............