Worth hiring a professional ?

Russman

Hi,

I'm just wondering if its worth hiring a professional genealogist to research someone's history ? Is there even such a thing ?

Basically my dad (77) never knew any relatives, never met his mother, was fostered for all his younger years and would love to try to find out his backstory - what happened to his mother, has he any close relatives etc etc. Is this something a professional could do, or is it just as easy to do yourself ? All he really has is his mother's name, age, and where and when he was born. Himself and my mother did some research 20 years ago but pretty much ran into dead ends everywhere. I'm thinking/hoping that 20 years on, there may be more records computerised, or even found, than existed in 2000 ?

Many thanks.

spurious

There is a huge amount available online now compared to 20 years ago. Of course you could hire a professional, but I would see how far you can get yourself with the free sites. See the sticky in this forum.

DNA is also a tool that can help.

Hermy

I've no doubt that a good genealogist will be able to help with a search like this but by all means start searching yourself first.

At least that way, if you do engage a professional, you'll have a certain amount of ground work done before you contact them.

pinkypinky

Lots of records available now. I am a professional genealogist - if you want to have an informal chat, I'm happy to do so.

Like Spurious says, there's lots of options for working on it yourself as well.

Russman

Thanks for the advice all, much appreciated.

Pinkypinky, many thanks for the offer of an informal chat - I'll drop you a pm.