Question re: family history research bill / payment

hannover-l
1

I received a family tree in the mail today from someone who did research at
a church in Hannover.

I never requested this, and it is quite an extensive family tree. The tree
is authentic and verifies everything that I already have.

I was also sent a bill for 95.00, for the hours that were done. What do I
do with the bill?

It looks like she worked 16 hours on the research, and then payed for the
postage, etc. to have it mailed.

Is this in German monies, or american monies? How would I go about paying
for it?

I was just surprised to get a bill since I never requested the info, yet
someone did the research for me anyway!

Thanks for any advice.

Rachel

2

My suggestion is NOT to pay for something you didn't order. It could be a scam. Someone may have accumulated information readily available elsewhere and wrote it up to make it seem as if 16 hours of research were done just for you! The other problem is that it apparently verifies information you already have, so it doesn't add anything to your genealogy.

The "95.00" could be euros, which currently translates to $123.00 in US dollars.

I would not make any payment, and don't let this person make you feel guilty or obligated to pay something! If the person gave you an e-mail address, you may wish to contact her for clarification.

I would encourage other "listers" to weigh in on this, and am curious as to whether anyone else has received such a mailing.

Bob Kuehn
Madison WI
(researching WATERMANN & HARTGE in Hannover)

3

Hi Rachel:

The decision will ultimately be yours. I think that the best action for the present is what Bill Kuehn suggested and that is contact the researcher.

Because of what I did in my prior life (before I retired) I have several questions which one may ponder:

1. How did the individual get your name and address AND 2. associate your name and address to the family tree?
3. If this is random, there must have been a mass mailing, would her return be worth it?
4. The amount requested for 16 hours is cheap even in Euros.
5. Is your family tree posted on a web site?
6. if so check it against what you received to see if it has similar nuances, i.e. Aunt Minnie's dob was listed as 4-21-36 insted of 4-12-36. If the material contains mistakes which are listed elsewhere, I would say that you were simply sent a transcricption of something off the web.

Now the unthinkable: You may have informally asked someone to do a lookup for you and the individual is just billing you for the costs. That should be obvious in her letter.

I think most of the people on the list would agree that it is not an orthodox approach.

Most of all, you did the right thing: you brought it to the lists attention. That way, a whole bunch of heads can get together to determine if it is a scam or someone who thought they were being helpful, as weird as that may be. Don't pay unless you feel you have received something for your money or (the unthinkable) somehow made an obligation.

Gale