How To Set a Genealogy Research Goal

Every year more and more records are made available from archives worldwide and family history industry partners continue to deliver technologies to make the research process more effective. These technologies range from using artificial intelligence to enable full-text search of handwritten records, to improved tools for analyzing DNA results to identify an unknown parent or break through a brick wall. Notwithstanding all these developments, genealogy research often still requires painstaking efforts searching for and analyzing all available sources to meet the Genealogical Proof Standard and ensure each project is as accurate as possible. Our team at Legacy Tree Genealogists consists of highly qualified professionals who love doing this painstaking research! Some of our clients hire us because they lack the skill, others have the skill but lack the time. Whatever your case may be, we're here to help!

When genealogical research is requested from a professional, we want to start with a clear and reasonable goal statement to make sure the researcher understands how the client’s valuable research time should be spent. What constitutes a goal and how do you know how much time (i.e. size of project) is needed to accomplish your goal(s)? In general, at Legacy Tree Genealogists, a goal is defined as research on one family line in one country or geographic location. We're happy to work on as many family lines as you'd like, but just keep in mind that the more family lines and/or geographical locations, the larger the project size should be so we have time to delve into the research and get you the best possible results. If time is spread too thin, results generally aren't great. 

With over twenty years of experience and thousands of research projects, Legacy Tree Genealogists has developed the following guidance to help facilitate a successful research project for our clients.  

Begin Your Genealogy Research From a Solid Starting Point

Researchers work from the known to the unknown and every research project should begin from a solid starting point. A solid starting point generally has specific birth, marriage, and/or death dates and locations.  

• An example of a genealogy research goal with a solid launching point: Research and extend the direct paternal line of John Paul Smith as far as time and records allow. John Paul Smith was born in Springfield, Illinois on 4 January 1921 and died in Chicago, Illinois on 3 June 1989. John married Evelyn Mayer on 24 December 1940 in Gary, Indiana
• An example of a genealogy research goal with a weak starting point: Research and extend all ancestral lines of Antonio López Vega. Antonio was born in Spain in the early 1900s and died in Cuba around 1969.

In the case of the second example, we can still begin with this goal, but research will likely need to start by locating more records for Antonio to solidify his details before his lines can be extended. The last thing we want to do is extend the lines of the wrong Antonio Vega!

If you don't have a solid starting point right now, that's fine! Just share what you already know about your family history and we'll help you determine where we should start. Sharing what you already know ensures we don't waste time duplicating your information (though we will review and analyze what you give us in order to make a plan for what to look at next). We're most interested in dates and places of ancestors' births, marriages and deaths. Even just approximate information can help, though we love to see original documents when you have them.

Focus On One Country or Geographic Location To Reach Your Genealogy Goals

Legacy Tree Genealogists assigns each client’s project to a researcher or team of researchers who are experts in the applicable geographic region of the world and have an in-depth knowledge of the records that are available in their area of expertise. Examples of a geographic region are Southern United States, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the United Kingdom. Focusing on family lines in one country or geographic location allows research to progress efficiently and utilize the client’s research hours effectively. If you have more than one area you'd like researched, it's best to order a larger project (a good rule of thumb is at least 25 hours per geographic location) so that we can divide up the time and give each team an adequate allocation for their part of the research. 

It is also important to know that some geographic locations are more time consuming to research than others and may require more than the standard amount of time. A client solutions specialist can provide those details based on your individual situation.

Focus On a Limited Number of Family Lines

The more family lines being researched, the greater the likelihood that the goal will span several geographical locations and record sets. Focusing on one family line per 25-hour block has the potential to extend that line further, versus researching several family lines that may encompass several geographic locations and record archives, which will likely yield less progress on each line.  

Ensure Your Genealogy Goal Is Realistic To the Size of Project You’ve Purchased

Different parts of the world or regions within different countries have unique challenges in terms of record availability. For example, the Southern United States suffered significant record loss during the American Civil War in which many of the county courthouses were burned along with many of the records stored in them.

Research in Ireland is hampered due to a fire in the Public Record Office in Dublin in 1922, creating the need to employ alternate record strategies such as searching parish records. In other cases, such as Colonial America, vital information such as birth, marriage, and death records weren’t kept by local governments or churches, so other records such as land or probate records may need to be searched to establish ancestral connections.

In short, record availability varies depending on the time period and geographic location, so the size of a research project should match the known research challenges. For this reason, some geographic locations require a minimum 50-hour project.

Also, if you want your whole family tree researched, or for more complex challenges such as research earlier than the mid-1800s and/or seeking an immigrant ancestor, we highly recommend starting with a larger project, because in many cases we'll need to determine ancestry through indirect of circumstantial evidence, and this takes much more time.

Ordering a larger project is also a benefit to you because 1) The hourly rate on our larger projects is lower (so you're getting a better deal); and 2) Each project -regardless of size – takes 4-6 months to complete, so ordering more hours to start gets more results per project. If you reorder later (which many people do, and we love this!) it takes another 4-6 months for the new project.

To help you decide which project size to start with, we offer the following general guidelines:  

• Basic 25-hour Project: Discover recent ancestors (post 1850), research one family line in one geographic location, begin a search for a birth parent, learn more about your DNA results, prepare to join a lineage society, or choose a customized goal.  
• Standard 50-hour Project: Search for early “brick wall” ancestors, research one or two family lines, work on identifying birth parents or grandparents, pursue more in-depth DNA analysis, or choose a customized goal. 
• Premium 100-hour Project: Research up to four family lines in one or two geographic locations or focus significant effort on one challenging research problem. 

A clear and focused research goal following the aforementioned guidelines allows your research project to get off on the right foot. We recognize that hiring a professional is a big investment, and we want to get you the best results possible. For this reason, our Client Solutions Specialists will work with you to determine which size of project would be the best fit for the goal(s) you are hoping to work on. After you place your order and submit your starting information your personal Project Manager will help you define what the exact stated goal(s) should be based on what is most important to you, as well as what is realistic for the amount of project time you chose and the time period and geographic location(s) the research includes. 

If you'd like to get a free quote for your genealogy research project, you can reach out to us and we'll get in touch!