What degree or experience does a person have to have to be a professional genealogist?

Experience and ability to perform quality research are critical. Degrees can help, but many people are highly degreed and highly unqualified to be doing what they're doing.

Here are some criteria that should be met in order to deliver a quality genealogy product in exchange for cash:

http://www.bcgcertification.org/certification/faq....

Other sites: http://genealogy.suite101.com/article.cfm/becoming...

Programs like this one might be available in your community college or local university: http://professional.bu.edu/cpe/Genealogy.asp

I now regret I didn't get a degree in library or archival sciences.

Have a blast...

Contact the American Genealogy Society. They have courses that you can take. When you are ready they will advise you of someone in your area that will administer the test that they provide. You can be qualified by this association as a certified genealogist. A certificate will encourage people to seek your services. Put your ad in the yellow pages of your local phone book as well as the periodicals that deal with genealogical research in your area. The biggest mistake that most researchers make is not charging enough for services to provide a livable income. You can find books that will advise you regarding this venture. There are university courses in genealogy at a few universities. Good luck to you.

It is different in each country. The US does not have professional genealogists per se. However, genealogists or family historians do belong to the American Genealogy Society and then function as professionals. Other countries have other requirements. In France in order to function as a professional genealogist without any limitations you must also be associated with an attorney's office.

I don't know what degree you could even get. You would have to start checking with universaties to see what is offered.

The experience you would need to be considered a professional would be in searching out records at county and state offices; 'reading' cemeteries; searching out records at all levels, in various countries; finding out what libraries might have documents or accurate histories of families or areas; knowing what documents you need to look for; learning to decipher old handwriting; getting out and visiting places; things like that.

Start by getting in touch with a local Genealogical Society, and ask questions about it. They should be able to steer you in the right direction.

Genealogists are like fishing or searching classes. the only trouble-free thank you to pay them is thru the hour / day / week. On an extremely undesirable day, you should beat the trees all day and not detect a pheasant / deer / lion to shoot. in case your handbook became trouble-free and you have been life like, you will nevertheless pay him. an trouble-free genealogist ought to spend 2 weeks on a 5th great grandmother and nevertheless not discover her maiden call. in case your genealogist became trouble-free and you have been life like, you will nevertheless pay her. It takes greater potential to "hunt" lifeless ancestors than it does to paint a house or dig a properly. the outcomes are much less certain, too. an trouble-free genealogist won't supply you a assure of outcomes, basically a assure of an trouble-free attempt. Plus, what does "in line with individual" advise? BMD date and place? college information? Obit and marriage articles? Poring over the village newspaper conceal to conceal, on microfilm, from 1912 - 1988 to work out if he became reported interior the faculty outcomes, cricket league outcomes, police comments, social column?