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Road map to becoming a professional genealogist...

Genealogy is a popular past time, and I became serious about it several months ago when I decided to make a family history book for my parents. Not only did I include records and photographs, but I created a narrative for each person to help give the reader a sense of their life and times.

Some time later, when I was looking for part time work, my husband pointed out that I might be able to make money creating family history books for others. It would be the perfect use of my masters degree in information science, and allow me to work flexible hours from home while our children are still small!

What a great idea! I look online for tips about how to start this kind of business, and quickly became discouraged by the complexity of professional genealogy. Hourly rates were all over the place, from $20 per hour to $200 per hour! There were different paths to certification and different types of certification. Many of the websites that I visited to find out about these paths were outdated or lacked some basic information. Pictures of genealogy conventions featured plenty of obviously retired folks leaving me wondering if this would be a possibility for me in my busy time of life.

After mulling over what I had learned, I decided to create a roadmap for becoming a professional genealogist. I would need a reasonable goal and clear steps to reach that point. Since a thorough Google search left me frustrated, I decided to try to make connections with real genealogists. I searched for other organizations in my area but nothing came up. I also look at:

  • local library-- they have been short staffed and don't have a geneaology program right now. 
  • local Latter Day Saints-- still waiting to hear back. 
  • Facebook groups-- there are very few, but I requested to join the groups "Professional Genealogist Colleagues" and "NEAPG New England Association of Professional Genealogists". NEAPG never approved my request, but the Professional Genealogist Colleagues have been very helpful.

Now to go work on defining my goal!

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