A recent influx of “professionals” into the genealogy community has created bidding wars for projects on the Ancestry.com forums. These lowball bidders are offering nigh impossible services for pennies on the dollar. A $40 bid to establish an ancestral tree going backwards in time for three centuries is no less absurd than offering a title chain for the same price covering the same period. It is patently ridiculous.

Yet, the title research industry has seen it's share of these fly-by-night firms. The swoop in, offering cheap products that omit applicable records. They take the money and run. Two years later, a disgruntled client calls your firm to order an update on a flawed product. You can only tell the client, in polite but firm terms, that you cannot update something that was done incorrectly, nor can you do so on the cheap. Meanwhile the fraudulent competitor has moved on to their next scam.

Well, now you know where the worst researchers in the world have landed: the professional genealogy field.

In the field of genealogy, the only standards are those promulgated by a few voluntary nonprofit associations. The desires, hopes, dreams, and sometimes unrealistic expectations of the client help to shape the direction of the research. Most American genealogists have no government regulation, no educational prerequisites, and no trade school certifications as they are not a prerequisit to entry into this field. Unlike title researchers who must meet the specific corporate needs of an insurance industry, genealogists typically work for private individuals and families, making them less likely to be reported for bad practices to any regulatory agency, except the Better Business Bureau or Yelp if they really are caught red-handed.

In truth, this “Wild West” world of American genealogy, makes the field appealing to the con artist who changes his business name the way Imelda Marcos changed shoes each day. “Caveat emptor” or “buyer beware” is the watch word for those seeking services of a genealogist. Checking to see that the genealogist is a member of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) is a step toward assuring that they are adhering to some industry standards. Reading the research contract carefully and clarifying any and all questions in writing before signing it (not to mention making sure that there IS a written contract in the first place) is integral to getting the services that you are paying to have done. Furthermore, doing some family research on your own can help familiarize you with the field of genealogy. For instance, using the Ancestry website and looking up yourself and your parents will get you thinking abou what goes in to the work, so that you can approach a ge nealogist with reasonable understandings and good questions based on those understandings.

But even with this said, no amount of regulatory climate imposed by a State or federal bureaucracy can eliminate the potential for fraud, negligence, or abuse. Even licensed attorneys commit illegal acts despite the many disincentives to do so, which are built into their licensure and credentialing systems.

The best protection that any layman has against abuse is to do a reasonable modicum of research by checking with the Better Business Bureau, Yelp, the city and county and state Chambers of Commerce, and Googling the subject firm. Asking for credentials and verifying the credentials is also important. Getting names of credentialed genealogists off of credible websites like Ancestry.com and verifying their membership in professional groups is another step toward avoiding third-grade level reports (most people don't want to spend $5,000 on a report that starts out with “Your grandpa was a farmer and liked veggies....”). Finally, reviewing samples of their work, reading the contract, getting all things in writing, and asking followup questions cannot be ignored.

I want to encourage the independent research community to consider taking up genealogy work. I do this for a number of good reasons:

1. The genealogy community could use an infusion of professionals who understand research and can bring a new level of professional competitiveness that will drive other genealogists to tighten their procedures and provide a more excellent product in a free and open market.

2. Title researchers can use the good experience of accessing other records than the standard title matter that they review each day. Have any of you considered using census forms to find out who was living in a particular home in the past? While this would not establish matters of title ownership, it could point you in the right direction for finding a deed during a broken chain search. I've blogged about looking up the establishment date of a high school on Wikipedia, finding a blog that spoke about the dedication ceremony of a Little League ballpark in the 1950's, reviewed local genealogical society archives for death dates of a homeowner in the 1800's and more. In each case the results have provided me with great data: High school built in 1954, stadium dedicated by Ty Cobb in June of 1962, death of socialite in 1923; each allowing me to find deed and probate records that I was seeking. Genealogy will expand your world!

3. Title researchers need more work in order to put food on their tables. Building on their strengths in research, title searchers will expand the scope of their offerings in hard times. They will compete against a larger field of researchers, but the competition is probably not reciprocal. With most genealogist lacking industry insider contacts, unfamiliar with the title search terraine, and uninsured for handling title matters, it is unlikely that there will be much backwash of genealogists entering our realm.

So, what steps will you take to enter into the exciting and wonderful world of genealogy? Follow me on a magical tour:

1. Start by watching the NBC show “Who Do You Think You Are”, watching the PBS special series “Faces of America” and subscribing to genealogy groups online. There are Google and Yahoo and many other forum groups that you can join in order to read up on current trends, expectations, and issues in the genealogy field.

2. Subscribe to the National Genealogical Society membership to get their periodical. Read their guidelines on their website as the basis for creating your own contract offers for research.

3. Begin bookmarking research websites. You should already be doing this as a title person, but probably miss doing so as often as not. Find new resources, go to link pages on research sites to earmark more and continue deeper and deeper until you have hundreds or thousands of online resources earmarked for future reference. Many of the groups and forums will list links that you can follow and bookmark, so do it.

4. Join Ancestry.com for the increased data access that it will afford to you as a researcher. It will help you, not only in genealogy, but in title searching too, especially as to matters of vital records, census, and city directories.

5. Take it slowly and build a contract. Since there are few genealogists with good contracts and fewer with well-written products, look to be a vanguard of new and higher standards. Don't just adopt the minimal standards of a industry group; improve standards by providing better, clearer, more explicit, more detailed, better analyzed results.

The recent talk within the title search field of establishing government-mandated standards is a waste of public resources. The free market should respond to a lack of standards and will do so in a variety of ways.

In genealogy, the public will arrive with new expectations from popular TV shows and the ease of access to data on places like Ancestry.com. Competitors from outside the genealogy field will enter, some providing fly-by-night garbage while others will offer a new level of professionalism lacking by current standards. The new forces will drive some genealogists to incorporate for liability purposes, which will create new levels of accountability for such firms. Others may remain “mom and pop” sole proprietors, but will begin to carry professional liability insurance which will drive them to meet better standards as well.

All in all, the lesson here is that there is opportunity provided by a free and open market. Imposing a regulatory climate on title searchers or genealogists will only dampen economic success for small businesses by increasing costs, liability and claims.