Maybe! I suppose the better question is when do you need a professional genealogist? And what exactly makes a professional genealogist a professional?
The best reason to hire a professional genealogist is because your time is valuable. Genealogy is a slow process. Few people aren’t at least a little bit interested in “where they came from” (you must be too, or you wouldn’t be reading this), but few people have the hours (or patience) to dig through hundreds or thousands of records in the hopes of finding one piece of information. We genuinely want to know about Great-Grandpa Joe but we have yard work and soccer practice and “real jobs.” A professional can do the work for you and hand you the results, saving you the hours, days, and months digging through archives, making sense of one or two stray facts, and turning it into a story worth sharing over Thanksgiving Dinner. Better yet, a professional won’t just hand you a pile of documents for you to sort through; they will write it up in a report or narrative (or sometimes even a book) in a way that makes sense, provides context, and brings your family history to life.
Or maybe you have a specific question. Did Great-Grandpa Joe really escape on the last ship out of Germany before WWII? You’ve tried to research it yourself but aren’t sure where to start, or worse you’ve looked “everywhere” and can’t find anything to prove or disprove the story. Professional genealogists aren’t limited to online resources or offline resources in their own geographic area, and they know where to look. They know never to believe family legend without proof and their job is to find the proof. It is entirely possible it doesn’t exist, but a reputable professional will tell you so, and only after exploring every other option they and their network of fellow professionals are aware of outside of the most common sources. They might just disprove the family legend (or prove it!), but there is a good chance they will find something else as or more interesting along the way.
Professionals come into play for a host of reasons. Maybe you just need someone to proofread or fact check work you’ve already done. Maybe you want to do the work yourself and love the hunt, but have no idea where to start and need someone to help you focus. Maybe it isn’t even your own history you are tracing. Professional genealogists help historians research their subjects and the people around them at a particular place and time, digging into sources and locations many historians don’t even know exist or how to apply. Investigative genealogy is a whole different branch, tracing living descendants of common ancestors to solve a myriad of problems like adoptions, legal inheritance issues, military repatriation, and more.
There are a lot of people out there who have been “doing” genealogy for many years. You may even be one of them. It’s not uncommon for someone who has been researching their family tree for years to start assisting others on a volunteer basis or for a small fee. Genealogists are a friendly community of like-minded individuals with a passion for history and storytelling. Volunteering to assist others is a time-honored and important piece of the genealogical community, and some of those volunteers are exceptional genealogists. So, what makes a “professional,” other than a significant additional cost to you? What are you paying for?
Professional genealogists have a solid understanding of standards agreed upon by the genealogical community to ensure accurate, valid research. They have sought out significant training on genealogy through formal classes, conferences, online courses, peer review, and more. They know that it is expensive to gain the skills, experience, and knowledge, the access to databases and repositories, the memberships to historical societies and professional organizations, and not everything can be learned in free or low-cost webinars or found in free repositories. They have dedicated hours upon hours of time to learning their trade, writing their results, and often publishing those results and/or teaching others.
Certification or accreditation is a big giveaway that someone has gone above and beyond in their education and experience, but it isn’t required, or in some cases even desired for some of our most outstanding professionals. Certification or accreditation requires a significant amount of formal and informal training and knowledge of genealogical and academic standards, as well as a pledge to uphold the standards of research and ethics within the genealogical community. Membership in professional societies such as the Association of Professional Genealogists requires the same pledge, if not the same evidence of training and experience. When you hire a professional genealogist you don’t need to know anything about the Genealogical Proof Standard, about different sources or archives, about how to cite sources or write up your results; you can rest easy knowing that the results you receive meet those standards.
A professional genealogist will be respectful of your time and money. They will work efficiently to find answers within an agreed-upon time frame, with a clear question to solve or information to find. They may not be able to get you the answers you seek in the time allotted, but they will tell you so and provide what they can. They will provide you with a final report or document as agreed upon before they ever start researching, so you don’t have to interpret the results yourself. They will know where to look, or at least where to start, or they won’t (ethically) take the job. Additionally, professionals understand they are running a business. They will provide you with contracts, invoices, prompt replies to emails and phone calls, timely work, and honest assessments of their ability to assist you and, generally, referrals when they cannot. Like a professional in any field, their time is valuable, and their reputation is everything.