Repository in Review- Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com is one of my favorite sites. I often compare the quality of another site against it..... so why wasn't it the first "Repository in Review"? Quite simply, I talk about it so much I didn't want to bore you with it. On the other hand, I do use it daily and you may not be familiar with it, so it is unfair to never review the resource. Besides, even if you use it, you may not know all that is available to you. So for the third installment of my ongoing review series, we're going to get the low-down on Ancestry.com.

The Features and Benefits

Ancestry.com is the largest online family history resource. Starting as a publishing company in 1983, they began to digitise records for online use in 1996. The Card Catalog lists 30, 994 collections that cover 10 billion records. While most are English or German language documents, there are also French, Italian, Swedish and Spanish documents. The U.S. and Europe are the most represented areas, but there are records available for Asia, South America, Mexico, Australia, Canada and Africa. In their Card Catalog you will now find web links to other genealogy sites. Ancestry may own Fold3.com, but it is a separate website with a separate database collection and membership fees. They will also link you to websites they do not own (and may have made an index without specifically partnering with that website). Why are they linking you to other websites? Because no one site has everything, not even Ancestry. I have seen a great number of people complain about this link to other websites. They don't want to use those other websites. If you don't, just ignore those hints. Go ahead and cripple your research right off the bat. Or you can be honest with yourself and admit you'll need more than one repository for your research.

On top of records, they have their Learning Center that includes a Wiki, forums where researchers inquire and connect with each other, Facebook page for updates and socialisation, and YouTube channel full of specific lesson plans and recordings of their interactive Q&A sessions. All of this is provided for free to any registered member. Regardless of whether you pay or not, you can build a tree of your own and upload any photos or information in your possession. If you pay for a while but let your membership lapse, your tree is still available. I often have to let my membership slide for a while and use that off time to add information I've gathered from relatives, other websites, and offline sources.

Some points out of the Terms and Conditions (red indicates direct quote from the T&C):

• You may access the Website, use the graphics, information, data, editorial and other Content only for personal or professional family history research, and download Content only as search results relevant to that research. The Content may be downloaded onto mobile devices or desktop through the use of authorized Ancestry software. When downloaded, the Content remains subject to the limited use license contained in this Agreement. When I reviewed NewspaperArchive, I pointed out that professional use wasn't allowed. In this paragraph, Ancestry is giving you permission to use the site for professional purposes, as long as you continue to follow the guidelines of the site. That means you still have to follow copyright rules, so no publishing photos to a site or book (or final report to a client) without obtaining license to do so.
• Except for Web Records, which are governed by the third parties that host the records, all Content is owned, licensed to and/or copyrighted by Ancestry and may be used only in accordance with this limited use license. The Website is protected by copyright as a collective work and/or compilation, pursuant to U.S. copyright laws, international conventions, and other copyright laws. What this means is that the links to other websites (i.e. Find a Grave) are subject to the terms of use and copyrights of their original website. (You can't copy photos from Find a Grave and distribute them on Ancestry.com without permission of and credit to the photographer- hence Ancestry providing a weblink instead of a photo or image of the website itself). Whatever items you upload that you own (a photo of the family you yourself took, an oral history you record in the story section, etc.) are licensed to Ancestry.com without changing ownership or copyright transference.
• According to the Rules of Conduct, you cannot Reproduce, copy or sell any portion of Ancestry or Ancestry database contents, or systematically download contents and data of the Ancestry database to make or populate another database or for any other purpose. This kind of put me in the mind of a discussion I had with someone recently that had started a family website and wanted to take the images from Ancestry.com's databases and upload them to the new website. Nope, can't do it. You can link to the record. You can cite them as a source. You can download a copy to hold in your computer. But you can't copy a database in whole or in part for the purposes of distributing with other people.
• For User Provided Content, Ancestry is merely hosting and providing access. We cannot accept any liability with regard to such material (including with respect to its accuracy). In other words, family member trees aren't gospel and shouldn't be used as facts. Ancestry.com doesn't police those trees and won't change anything found there no matter how much you know it's wrong. The only time they get involved is when someone makes an obscene tree or something to intentionally malign a person.
• The decision to upload information to the Website is your responsibility and you should only submit content that belongs to you or that will not violate the rights of others. Be aware that content belongs to the creator of that content and you should not reproduce or submit anything without permission of the owner. This one trips a lot of people up. A picture of your great grandmother taken by a photographer is owned by the photographer or the studio that employed him, not you. Even if there are 100 copies in 100 people's hands, the photographer owns the copyright on each and every photo. By submitting User Provided Content to Ancestry, you grant Ancestry, its parent company and all of its affiliates, a transferable license to use, host, sublicense and distribute your submission to the extent and in the form or context we deem appropriate on or through any media or medium and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed or discovered. This basically just covers Ancestry's tail and says they have the right to have your photos and stories on a public tree in their search feature and on their servers. It doesn't mean Ancestry owns your items, but it does mean that their sister sites like Rootsweb and Mundia can also distribute your information without paying you to do so. It also covers technology changes (if the next big invention is a straight to brain interface, they don't have to ask for your permission for your items to go from the public website to the public brain wave). With that all said, if you own a copyright on something and someone obtains a copy of it without your permission, you can contact Ancestry's copyright department and they'll have it removed. You have to prove you own the rights to the work (and again, pictures of your grandmother as a baby aren't owned by you in any way).
• All subscriptions are automatically renewing with the exception of gift subscriptions and pay-per view. This means that once you become a subscribing member, your subscription will be automatically renewed and your billing choice will be charged based on the subscription program (semiannually, quarterly, monthly, etc.) you have chosen unless you opt out or cancel by following the instructions in this Agreement. Except in the case of monthly subscriptions, you will be notified via e-mail before your subscription ends and asked to correct any information which has changed and whether you wish to "opt out" of your renewal. The renewal of the subscription takes place subject to the terms in force on the date of renewal. That's right, another automatic renewal site. And they send you a reminder email for all but the monthly subscriptions (which should renew at the same time every month so I can see why they don't remind you).

Dollars and Sense

There are two levels available: U.S. and World. Now, this is coming at it from the U.S. (which I am) and admittedly if you live in another country it'll be your area and World, so probably the better way to say it would be Local and World....... either way, I'm dealing with it as a U.S. subscriber, and as I'm about to talk price, will just clarify that this is the subs available for U.S. residents. There are three price options to each level: monthly, 6 month and yearly. For the U.S. records only, it's $22.95 per month, $77 for the 6 month option, $155 for the yearly. (The 6 month and yearly make it about $12.95 per month, but are billed all at once, so be ready for that!). The all-access World subscription is $34.95 per month, $149 for 6 months, and $299 for a year. (The 6 month and yearly work out to $24.95 per month, again billed at the total price at one time).

From the T&C: Opting Out of Renewal. You may opt out of renewing your subscription by calling Ancestry at 1-800-262-3787 or by logging into your My Account page on the Website at least two days before the renewal date. If you do not let us know that you want to terminate your subscription at least two days prior to the end of the current subscription period the payment for the renewal period of the subscription will be made. So you have 2 days before your renewal date to cancel your subscription (AND you must cancel before 5p.m. Mountain Time!). That means that if my subscription ends on the 19th, I have until 5 p.m. Mountain Time on the 17th to cancel my subscription. Again, they give an online option, but just call them as it goes easier when you have a real person (and then someone to blame if they mess up your cancellation). Also of note: if you have a subscription longer than the monthly sub, you can get a refund as long as you cancel within the first 30 days. Renewals must be cancelled within 7 days. Month subscriptions receive no refund, but you have access to the website until your month expires. In fact, any subscription that they are unable to refund continues to allow access until the subscription runs out, so don't wait until the last minute to cancel your subscription. Take care of it early enough to ensure it's done and then use it up.

When searching the Card Catalog, you can narrow the field to free databases by searching for the keyword "free". When I searched free, I got a list of 728 free databases that can be searched by anyone at anytime. You will still need to make a user name and password, but you don't need to log a credit card or participate in the 14-day trial to get these records. Now, that includes 2 family tree databases that are about as useful as warm dog turds most of the time, so really you're at about 726 databases. Still an impressive number. Also keep these databases in mind when comparing with other sites. These are usually publicly available databases that no one is (or should) charge for. Others are part of Ancestry's World Archives Project and have been made available by Ancestry using volunteer transcriptionists. Also note that these are usually only an index and that to see other data on the record you usually need to pay for a copy or the more detailed database.

My Two Cents

You can't ignore the numbers:

• 2 million paying subscribers- 2 million people are so happy with the service that they choose to hand over their hard-earned money to Ancestry. Since that only counts the paying members, imagine how many more are using just the free side of the service. That speaks volumes (at least to me) about the quality and quantity of what's to be found on this site. Others may say it's because they have a near monopoly, but I can't help but think of FamilySearch and their impressive collection both on and offline (which I'll cover soon in another review).
• 10 billion records and counting- this is where that near monopoly thing comes into play. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing for the community as a whole, but for me I count it as a good thing. One place to start, compile and keep my research? Yes, please. With it being centralised for U.S. and Europe ancestry, however, there are glaring holes to be sure. On the other hand, what they don't have is usually not online or held by websites specific to a database, so it's certainly a place to start for just about everyone.
• 82¢ a day- Full site access is less than $1 a day for a full year. Heck, even if you do a month subscription for February (the shortest month), it's $1.25 a day for full access. You may not need full access. Maybe a simple U.S. (or local) subscription will do for a while. For what's available vs price to view, this is a rather cheap subscription. (Here's another way to look at it, how many records per dollar of a year's subscription: NewspaperArchives has 1,666,667 records per dollar, Fold3 has 1,175,735, and Ancestry has 33,444,816. While you will never need all of them, that's a hell of a lot of potential or "bang for your buck").

There is a 14 day trial. Use it. Even if you find the records useless, the ability to build an online tree and use their free databases and forums make up for that lack. There is a great potential for connecting to relatives who are also researching your lines. Of course, the records are the meat and potatoes of the site and most people will never get their fill. Don't go happily clicking away on all the hints that pop up though. They are just hints and you need to find out if they are facts. That requires critical thought and time. If you look at the family trees, consider any tree without records as suspect and only add what you already know to be true. If there are sources, review them to ensure the member hasn't made a mistake and led you down the garden path. If you have a recent immigrant or know quite a bit about your ancestors on this side of the ocean, go ahead and pay for full World access. If you are just starting out, don't bother with World, just get U.S. (or local) for the time being.

And remember, it's only one tool in your toolkit. You can let your membership lapse and still have access to your tree. I have a specific budget for websites. If I need a different site and I'm tired of Ancestry (I can't really say done, I'm never done), then I'll switch off one and pick up the other. I cite the other websites on my tree on Ancestry to keep my research together as well as to give hints of other work available for people who are connected to my tree. I'm proud to say that every member in my tree has at least one documented source proving they exist. It bothers me when a tree has 300,000 people and no sources. I wonder how they know they aren't wrong or duplicated. And to be honest, it's usually both. One last note on member trees: I've covered private vs public trees before. What I want you to take away today is that how and why other people research is their own business. If you wish to share your information, do so. If your information is taken by someone with a private tree, message them to welcome them to your family. If they respond kindly, you have a new friend. If they respond rudely or not at all, what have you really lost? Let them be and focus on your own work.

See you next week,
-Ana

For Better or For Worse- Finding a Marriage Record

Cousin Jack and his bride Heather

One of the most sought after documents in our family tree is the marriage record. This one little thing can help answer so many questions. Ages, full names, the wife's maiden name and, naturally, the date of the marriage. How do you find this important piece of paper? And what's the difference in obtaining an index, record, license, or certificate?

First, let's discuss the different forms of marriage records that you will come across and what you'll most likely find. The Marriage Index is usually a searchable database or record book (Marriage Register) of all marriages performed in a certain area for a certain time. This record usually includes the names of the bride and groom and the date of marriage, but little else. A Consent Affidavit would be a form filled out by a parent or guardian of an underage groom/bride to prove that the marriage contract was accepted by an adult who understood the consequences of marriage. Not all marriages required one to be written, some only needed a verbal consent. So you may not find this in your search. A Declaration of Intent is a written or verbal statement that these two people want to marry and are legally able to do so. Banns and Intentions were published documents declaring the intent of the couple to marry and a challenge should anyone object. Churches usually read aloud the Banns ("if anyone objects to this union....") during services/the ceremony. Intentions were usually posted in a public forum (like an newspaper engagement notice today) so the locals had the opportunity to object. These weren't always required, so again, you may not find them for your records. Bonds were usually a document of a fee that the groom and/or the father/brother of the bride posted to off-set litigation costs should the marriage be nullified. If your record has this, it's a great place to find names of the bride's relatives or guardians. Marriage Licenses are the most common and usually have the most information. These were usually filled out and returned to the county clerk for filing, so you will usually find these in the county records office. They could include names, ages, dates, witness/guardian names, races, and residence information. Licenses are usually confused for Certificates, which are the papers that are given/mailed to the couple and kept in their records as proof of their union. These are usually found in your family's files and may not have all the information a License has.

To find the record you're looking for, you need to know where to look. The most obvious place is going to be where the couple was living prior to their marriage. You can find clues in censuses to where they lived (some years even asked for the year or length of marriage) and go from there. Now, I have one word of caution on this: some people would travel great distances (one or two states over) if they wanted to get married quicker or with fewer legal complications. For example: my grandparents married in Clay County, Arkansas. Clay county became a "marriage mecca", because it allowed marriages to wave the three day wait if there was a special reason (and to the judge in Clay county, all marriages were special!). So even though they lived in Indiana, they went south with their witnesses so they could marry right away. Keep an open mind in your searches if you don't find the record where you think it should be.

What if you can't find an official record? Well, you can try churches in their area. Sometimes there may not have been an official depository for marriage records. Territories didn't have a "government" as we know it, so the churches would perform marriages and keep the records. Also peruse newspapers. Now, not all newspapers are online. And there's no main database. So you may need to go to a library, contact a historical society, or contact local newspapers to find an archive. Not everyone announced an engagement/marriage, so you may not get the answers you want.

When did people start recording marriages officially? Well, that'll depend on the area. Most marriage records will be at county level. You can Google search "vital records" of whatever location you are looking for and a link or two will come up telling when records started to be kept, where to find them, and how to contact the office to request a copy. With few exceptions, most vital records will have began sometime in the 1800's for the States. Some a little sooner, some a little later. Ancestry has many marriage indexes and even has some images. If they don't have a copy of the actual record, they usually have a link on how to order it, so it's an excellent first stop.

Because this record can hold so much detail about someone's adult life, especially women, it can be the holy grail for some researchers trying to make that next big leap back. Don't be discouraged if you don't find it right away, or if it doesn't have all that you need on it. In the end, it is one piece of a very large puzzle. There is more than one road into Rome.

-Ana

Foraging in Forums

I love Ancestry's Facebook page. I'm on there a lot answering and asking questions, checking news and connecting with people. What surprises me is how many people post queries like "anyone researching Jones family?". It's not a bad idea to ask, mind. It's just that Facebook's a stream of consciousness and that post will be invisible in a day. I've even seen people ask if the Facebook page is searchable so they can find information and queries that have long past. It's not, but there's hope! In most sites, you'll find a plethora of information not found readily anywhere on the web. This magical forest has it's own hazards of dead-ends and misinformation, but to a wary traveller, it can bring about the most fascinating finds! What is this wonderland of genealogical beauty? A forum!

Forums or Message Boards are places where people put up a message hoping that a living breathing person like themselves will happen past it and they can connect and share information. When used properly, you can find new relatives, new sources of information and help on some of your thorniest issues. When mishandled, you can find yourself lost in a maze of nonsensical postings, forever hiding the gems to be found. However, you should devote some time each month in searching forums, as a breakthrough can pop up at anytime from anyone.

How to use what's there

My two favorite and regularly checked forums are on Ancestry.com and Genforum. Different sites and societies will have their own for the special topics they cover, but I find these two to be well used, maintained and covering the most topics. Both have a surname, regional, and general discussions section. Ancestry adds things peculiar to it's site like announcements, information on their record collections, ethnicities and royal lineages. The message boards on Ancestry are also found on their affiliate site rootsweb.com.

There are two ways to use the forums. The way most people do, and the way a serious hard-core gotta find it researcher would. Most people will read a few of the topic sentences hoping to see a name they recognise, or they'll type a name into the search bar at top and hope to find something of use. These people usually get bored one or two pages into a forum. This isn't a good idea. First, titles can sometimes have no information ("OMG help pleasssseeee!!!!!!"). Second, most recent activity is at the top, so something from a seasoned relative may be farther back. Third, it's kind of a hunt and peck method that leaves most people believing the forums have nothing for them and they give up.

Now let me ask you something: When you know your relative was living in Oklahoma during the 1920 census, but you can't find them in a regular search, do you give up? If you do, you are a "most people" researcher and you need to stop that right now! If you don't, then what's your next step? Why, you try to narrow it down as best you can to the right district, but if you have to you will go page by page in the entire state's census just to find that relative! And that's what you may have to do on a message board. Not to say that a hunt and peck can't find you what you are looking for, but it has to be a pretty big needle (or a pretty small haystack) to immediately yield results. PLUS, searching more thoroughly than for just what you are looking for right now can bring you new avenues to explore!

Kemper Surname Message Board on Genforum.com

The first time you enter a message board, this process will take longer. Once you've caught up with it, however, you only need to periodically check on it (or set it so you get an alert when new messages are entered). I love surname message boards. It's where most people will begin. You'll of course want to search the way you know it is spelled and then any other close spellings to see if there is a separate board. I also check locality message boards if a family founded or was centralised for a long time in one spot (or if I need to know more about an area, culture or time period to help me break out of a research rut).


What I always start with is the earliest messages, which means I hope the board has a quick button (like Genforum) for having listing all messages or going to the earliest. Ancestry doesn't, so if there's 3000 messages, I have to page through them 50 at a time. That's a pain, but I tend to scan the titles to see what catches my eye. Either way, I want to start at the back and move forward so I don't miss anything. When I went to the Kemper forum (pictured above), I found more information in the older posts than I did the new. I also was able to find a few cousins via their old posts. Never worry about the date on the message. You may not get a response if you reply to something over a decade old (maybe they don't have that email anymore), but when you do it's so much fun! I found one cousin that had posted back in '98. I thought for sure I'd never hear from her. Much to my surprise, she did message me back and we shared what we knew and have kept in touch since.

I try to keep myself organised with forums like I would any research. I have a great old program from FranklinCovey that is like a dayplanner on your computer. It's pretty outdated for most stuff (it doesn't sync with smartphones), but you can print to the notes section and it comes off just like it would if you used paper. It also has pen functions, so I can just mark out the messages I've used up and make notes right on the "page" for follow up. I also separate into folders marked "round 1", "round 2", etc. so that I can search first for names I know, and then go back again for less obvious links. You can organise your notes with notepad or word or whatever, but I always try to keep a copy of the message titles so I know what I've searched and what I could look at again. Even if a message means nothing to me the first time through, I might find something that needs a second look later! For example, a woman was asking about a relative and I didn't recognise the name. Months later, I found a census that listed him as son to a person that was in my tree. I was then able to contact her and add what she knew to that information and share what I had for the line as well! By keeping track of all the messages and periodically checking over them, I find I can answer more questions without having to clog the board with a new query on an old topic!

Adding to What's There

  It is very important that your question gets answered. So how do you go about making sure people see it? Well, first, PLEASE check to see if it's been asked before! I've seen way too many repeated posts from different people and I just wonder if they ever get to one another. If there are tens of thousands of posts, no one will read all of them and yours could be the one that is ignored. After checking to make sure the question hasn't been answered yet, make sure you're message will get a response!

Obey these simple rules:

1. Make your title count! In the below example, the first title is so vague most people won't even bother to read it unless really curious. Try using a name, location, date, anything specific to your query, but keep it brief.
2. Post in the right forum. Make sure your post is topical. If you are searching for Smiths, naturally you'd want to put that in the Smith surname board. But if you're looking for Corporal Smith of the Union army, posting it in a war or military board may yield more results from someone familiar with battles that person was in.
3. Give what you know to get what you need. In your message provide all you know. "Looking for Genevieve Bootyshaker" doesn't get you what something like this will: "Genevieve Bootyshaker married to Tom Bootyshaker. Born October 1818, died May 1876 in Oklahoma. She had three children Archie, Ned, and Jules. Need to know her maiden name, parents, birthplace and if she had siblings." Don't make people ask you for what you know (or assume you know nothing) leading them to be less than helpful or ignore you completely.



Ancestry.com message board for Indiana Cemeteries



In Conclusion

If used properly, forums can be another tool in your toolkit. You can post to a forum and know that if you don't receive an answer right now, one may come down the pipeline at anytime. Searching message boards can lead you to new information, new relatives, new experiences. If you add them to your regular record searches and facebook connections, you will greatly increase your chances of finding what you need. It takes time to go through, and you can narrow it down with search features. But taking the time to comb through a board can lead to some great finds. Happy hunting!

-Ana





When to Pay for Information

Now you've got a tree started and are working furiously trying to find any and all information about your ancestors. You start to surf the web and run into "introductory" offers to view information. Or you contemplate joining a Historical or Genealogical society. If you take on more than one source, the price of membership can climb steeply quite quickly. So what should you pay for? What can you find free? When should you pay someone else to help you?

First, I'd like to point out that the world is mostly capitalistic. You should expect nothing for free; you aren't entitled to be given anything. If you do have to pay for something it is to help them operate their business so that they can research, archive, and upload that precious information you have gone looking for. Please keep this in mind before you bemoan greedy fat cats and what you can and cannot get for free elsewhere.

With that said:

I'm a big fan of Ancestry.com. I use their site free at the moment, but paid for a year prior and plan to pay for them again later. I just have little time or money to be throwing around right now (like many of you) and had to cut one of my favorite hobbies to a minimum. They have two options, one for just United States information and one for "World" access. I say "World" because they don't have all countries available- it's mostly Europe and sketchy at that. They still have to find the records; then pay for the rights to reproduce them; then pay someone to transcribe them (or through their World Archives project, induce you to volunteer time to transcription). Around $30-40 to get you access, depending on if they are having a sale or something. Of course, it's less if you pay for a bulk year, but it's up to what you can safely budget. Should you pay? I think so. They've got loads to comb through like Censuses, Birth and Death records, Newspapers..... you could spend years on just what they have if you've got patience to do so. But you don't have to. They have a free membership that allows you to input your information and upload data from other sources. They do free search weekends and the like so you can get a taste of what they have to offer without paying (there's even a 14 day trial to start you out). Either way, this is a good site. Plus, it's super easy to save their sources to your tree. (If you don't pay, when you do get to access their sources for free, print them out or save them as you can't view them after the introductory event).

They've bought many of the sites that are out there like Rootsweb (free but .... ignored and a bit mishandled now). They also own Fold3 (used to be Footnotes). This one is all newspapers, military records and naturalisation documents. You have to pay for it and it's about $80 for a year. I've not bothered with this one yet as I've been able to find news articles elsewhere if I search, but have considered adding this one to my spending. I'm interested in a possible hits to the naturalisation records of my great grandmother, but there are a few to try and I've not got enough information to guarantee any are her. Should you pay? There are some documents here you can't get free elsewhere, so if you know what/who you are looking for, I'm sure it can help. If you're taking a blind plunge, it might not be worth $80 to come up empty handed.

Golly, so many sites I use free, Genforum, FamilySearch, Worldgenweb, Progenealogists, etc. Cindi's List is wonderful as the she has looked through a lot of the sites available and has categorised them for easy look up. So you can exhaust several of these before you have to go searching out a paying alternative. Many have some things free and then a paid member site. Should you pay? Not really sure you should. What you have to pay for on most sites is what you have to pay for on the bigger known sites, so why pay twice?

What about a historical society?
Well, this is an iffy one for me. There are several societies out there. They are National, Ethnic, County, or even family specific......... I can't imagine paying for all of them. Some offer free information, some make you pay a membership fee yearly. Some I feel are just making you pay so you can receive a monthly digest from them of "tips" you can find anywhere. So this one's up to you. I've not seen the need to pay for a society yet, but there are some that have documents you can't find elsewhere and they won't share without membership. If you join one, make sure it'll be worth it -if your family helped found Bumtown County, joining their historical society might be worth the effort. However, joining the Scottish Preservation society doesn't help you if your family is strictly Italian; no matter how cool the information is, it's not helpful.

Should I pay someone else to help me?
You can if you want. Here's the thing, there's lots of info that is free if you search hard enough for it. There are people out there who just love to look stuff up and if you post on a forum they read, they'll find that information for you for free. So why should you pay?

1. You don't have the time to research it yourself
2. You've run into a dead end and need new eyes on the search
3. The person in question is a member of a site or society that requires membership and is willing to gather this information for you for a fee
4. They can locate/translate a document you can't

Does it have to be a "professional"? Meh. To be honest, a professional is good in the fact that they've been doing this for a while and have a reputation to uphold for honest work. On the other hand, Grandma Busybody doing searches for a couple of extra bucks for Christmas isn't a bad choice. If I'm looking for some hard to find stuff, a professional is going to be used to finding that stuff. They may have a history background that will give them ideas where to look. They'll be a part of a society that has that information. They'll have contacts to ask. They'll be relatively expensive. But they will for the most part be very accurate. (There's always a bad apple, which has lead to many false pedigree's in the past- so do your homework). With that said, an "amateur" might also just be someone who's not taken archival or historical classes (there really isn't a standard genealogy course to take in school), but loves history and lineage. They may have only been researching for about a year to five years, too short a time to be considered experienced. But they'll do small searches online or in their nearby areas for a pittance. I myself have charged small hourly rates or flat fees to do an internet search for someone who doesn't have time or a clue how to do a simple search (and it is surprising how many people can't figure out Google). I'm not being greedy, I'm just in the same economic crunch everyone else is and can't afford to offer my time for free. But I'm thorough and have been quite successful with some difficult cases. I've used a professional on some things, like searching Native ancestry (a big pain in my butt) or foreign records (seriously, I'm not learning Lithuanian just to trace a relative).

Bottom line, if you don't want to pay, don't. There's plenty of free options, but you will work harder for them. But hey, the search is the fun isn't it?

-Ana