Research How-To · Hiring a genealogist
Many American families get a long way with free databases and then stop at the same point: the village is uncertain, the records are in Russian or Latin, or the registers are not online. That is when a professional Polish genealogist is worth the money. Here is how to choose one.
When it makes sense to hire help
- You have searched the American records but cannot identify the village with confidence
- The records you need are in an archive or parish and not online
- The records are in Russian, Latin or old German handwriting you cannot read
- You need certified copies for Polish citizenship or another legal purpose
- You want the whole family documented, not just one line
What a good genealogist should offer
- Experience with the partition and archives that your family’s records are in
- The ability to read Polish, Latin, Russian and German records, or a translator who can
- A written plan before starting, with a clear scope and a fixed price or budget
- An image of every record found, with the archive and reference number
- Full translations, not summaries
- A written report that explains the reasoning, including what was not found and why
Questions to ask before you pay
- Which archives and parishes do you expect to search, and are the records online or on site?
- What will I receive at the end, and in what format?
- What happens if the records do not survive, or the village cannot be confirmed?
- Are archive fees, copies and translations included in the price?
- How long will it take, and how will you keep me informed?
What it costs
Professional research is usually priced by the hour or as a fixed project. The cost depends much less on the number of records than on how many archives must be contacted and how much has to be read to find them. As an example of project pricing, our own research projects start at $1,290 for 10 hours, which usually covers identifying an ancestral village, and $2,900 for 25 hours, which usually adds the first generations of Polish records. Archive correspondence, copying fees and translation are included.
Warning signs
- A guarantee of results before the records have been checked
- No sources or images in the report, only a family tree
- An offer of a “family crest” or coat of arms for your surname
- Open-ended hourly billing with no budget or reporting
How to prepare
Gather everything the family already has, even if it seems useless: naturalization papers, obituaries, prayer cards, letters with Polish stamps, photographs with a studio name. A genealogist who can start from your documents rather than from the census saves you hours of paid time.
Ask for the evidence, not just the answer. A good genealogist will show you why a record belongs to your family.
How we can help
PoloniaRoots works exactly this way: fixed prices in US dollars, a written plan, every record as an image with a full translation, and a report that explains the evidence.