14 April 2024 The value of the professional

Most amateurs are working on only one ancestry – their own. They can get help with the basic problems from online forums, textbooks, lectures at their local family history society or by chatting to friend and family. Professionals, because of the many cases they have handled, are likely to see clearly the way to tackle a problem which baffles the relative beginner. They know which websites to use, where the records are, what they contain, how likely they are to help and can suggest new lines of attack if the initial ones fail. They are also likely to be realistic about admitting failure when the amateur, who after all is emotionally involved, feels in his bones that something is true and that proof simply ‘must be somewhere’. A professional assessment of your case can save a lot of wasted time.