oldenburg-l - Nachricht 2008-04 00019

[RICHARD L SCHINDALL <Dickjeannette(a)msn.com>]

Hi Marilyn,
               I believe we've talked before. I too last year had retained a genealogist in Oldenburg Germany. She charged 15 Euro per hour plus travel expenses. I could only furnish her with a name and date of birth and both parents names and the place of Oldenburg Germany as my wife's Grandfather came to America as a youth of 17 alone, the only one of his family to come. The surname was Janssen and we found out that Oldenburg was a region and a large city as well. She found the families in church records in Bockhorn ,Grabstede, Halsbeck & Westerstede Parishes as well as living cousins. Her bill was 7 hrs research time or 106 Euro and  30 Euro Travel and 14.50 Euro for copies and postage. The total came to 151 Euro and she had very limited info with travel to the parishes. This person now works for the Westerstede church has the names birth dates marriage dates provided and is asking this amount of money. Unbelieveable !!! I can't recall how much genealogical information I've furnished free for persons in Sweden & Germany free gratis...........Dick   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: mstulken(a)wi.net<mailto:mstulken(a)wi.net> 
  To: Oldenburg-L<mailto:oldenburg-l(a)genealogy.net> 
  Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 9:21 PM
  Subject: Re: [OL] Question on Charges ForFamilyInformation....................


  Perhaps this will give some perspective.  I once hired a professional
  genealogy company in the US.  They had very convincing ads, published
  articles in genealogy magazines and apparently had good credentials.  I
  gave them a considerable amount of information up front and asked them to
  pursue things in Germany-not to go there; just write letters in German to
  the appropriate offices, etc., since my German is so limited.  They
  reshuffled the information I gave them, added some census records that I
  already had but which were beside the point, and told me they had written
  the German letters, but there were no copies included in their report. 
  The final report was the most elegant example of saying nothing I've ever
  seen.  My bill?  over $600!

  On the other hand, there's a woman who researches the records in a church
  in Oldenburg who some years ago sent me several generations of one of my
  ancestral lines.  She asked only that I send what I thought was right.  I
  sent her $300 and considered it a great bargain.

  Since then, I've hired other research in Germany and have always
  considered it to be a good value.

  When I spend money on genealogy, I always say, "Well, I don't have any
  other vices."  :-)

  Marilyn


  > Richard,
  >
  > That's probably on par with what I paid for similar research a while
  > back, but that included some travel expenses as well.  Consider the
  > number of requests that they probably get.  It's not like a 150 or 200
  > year old church here in the States.  There's a lot more records to go
  > through, there older and therefore harder to read, and there's so much
  > more history there that the requests from descendants who're spread all
  > over the world by now are probably endless.
  >
  > Also consider the cost and difficulty for you to go to Germany and do
  > the research yourself.  That's what finally convinced me to go ahead and
  > pay for it after about 9 or 10 months of contemplating.
  >
  > Just my 2 cents.
  >
  > RICHARD L SCHINDALL wrote:
  >> Annette,
  >>             Thanks for your reply. When you furnish them the name, date
  >> of birth, Marriage date, and parish and the person works for
  >> the church in the parish
  >> involved. 35 Euro or $55.00 US dollars is an exhorborante rate,sorry.
  >> Either they're dyslectic or just wear a
  >> mask............................R.L. Schindall
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