There are two sides to how much genealogy costs. Why Hiring a Professional Genealogist Costs So Much One side is how much it costs to hire a professional genealogist. This is a pretty short answer you should be able to understand with little explanation. A professional genealogist costs so much because genealogy takes so much time. You are paying them for their time. Would you be willing to spend several weeks (repeatedly) working on someone else's family tree for nothing? And when I say nothing, I mean you wouldn't have any money coming in to pay for food, housing, etc. There is actually a TON of free genealogy help out there because people do love doing genealogy. But there's far more demand for help than available free help (there's usually more demand for paid help than professional genealogists that can handle the work, even!). OK, hiring someone to help you or to do the research for you is one thing. Why else is genealogy not free? Paying someone