An honest comparison — what DIY genealogy really costs in money and hours, and the four situations where hiring actually pays.
We sell research, so treat this page accordingly — but the honest answer is that plenty of people should not hire anyone. Here's how we'd think about it.
Do it yourself if…
- You enjoy the hunt. This is the real one. For a lot of people the research is the point, and paying someone to do it removes the pleasure rather than the burden.
- You have one specific question. A single death date or one census lookup is usually an afternoon's work with free records.
- Your family is recent and well-documented. If everyone stayed in one county after 1900, the paper trail is unusually cooperative.
- The budget is tight. An enormous amount is genuinely free. Start with our state and county guides and the free database.
What DIY actually costs
Free is not the same as free. A serious DIY project usually means a records subscription for at least part of the year, a newspaper archive subscription, certificate fees from county and state offices at roughly $15–$25 each, and — the big one — your hours. A multi-generation project on both sides is realistically dozens of evenings, and more if you are learning the record sets as you go.
None of which is an argument against DIY. It's an argument against calling it free when you compare it to a quote.
Hire someone if…
- You've hit a wall you can't move. An outside researcher with different record knowledge is often the fastest way past it. That's frequently a small, cheap engagement rather than a whole project — see brick-wall help.
- There's a deadline. A reunion, a milestone birthday, a parent whose memory is going. Deadlines are the most common honest reason to hire.
- You want the artifact, not the activity. Many people don't want to become genealogists; they want the finished book on the shelf.
- The research crosses a language or an ocean. Foreign-language parish registers and immigration records are a genuine specialist skill.
The middle path
You can also do both, and many of our clients do: they research the family themselves and hire us only to turn it into the finished book. That's the $495 Bring Your Own Tree package — you keep the part you enjoy and hand over the part you don't.
No hourly meter, no surprise invoice. You know the number and the deliverable up front.
See the packages →Search 26,984,545 documented Midwestern ancestors. No account, no card.
Search the database →Frequently asked questions
Is hiring a genealogist worth it?
It is worth it when you have a deadline, a brick wall you cannot move, research that crosses a language barrier, or when you want the finished family history rather than the hobby. If you enjoy the research itself, doing it yourself is usually the better choice.
How much does it cost to research your family tree yourself?
Free records cover a great deal, but a serious DIY project typically involves a records subscription, a newspaper archive, certificate fees of roughly $15 to $25 each, and dozens of hours of your own time across a multi-generation project.
Can I do the research myself and pay someone just to make the book?
Yes. That is our $495 Bring Your Own Tree package: you supply a GEDCOM or tree you are confident in, and we produce the formatted family-history book and organized digital archive from it.
Do I need a DNA test to trace my family tree?
No. A documented tree is built from records — census, vital, church, land, and probate. DNA is useful for confirming a connection or working an unknown-parent case, but it is not required to start.