Category Archives: ICAPGen member spotlights

Spotlight on Richard W. Price, AG®

Richard PriceMeet Richard W. Price, AG, accredited for research in the records of England.

Accreditation

Richard’s goal for accreditation came after working as a professional genealogist for a time, and realizing that a credential would allow him to join the ranks of other Accredited Genealogist® professionals he respected very much. After receiving his AG credential he continued on to earn an MA in Family and Community History from Brigham Young University, which he felt gave him more knowledge and credibility.

Challenging and Unique Aspects of English Genealogy

Early on, research in the records of England required onsite visits to English repositories to gain access to many of these records. Richard made about ten research trips to England, spending six to eight weeks at a time there. He visited countless archives and many churches. Richard learned to search Manorial records and other early records which were in Latin and old English hand, and often difficult to read.  He says that locating and gaining access to Manorial records used to be more difficult than it is now, and that some are even on microfilm at the Salt Lake Family History Library.

Advice to Others Pursuing Accreditation

For others who are pursing accreditation, Richard advises them to try to get employment with a genealogical firm or work with a professional genealogist while attending school, or during the summer or after graduation. This can help an aspiring professional learn to think analytically, write reports, and organize the research process.  He says, “Take as many genealogical classes as you can to gain adequate training. There are several schools in Utah, as well as on-line classes.  The BYU-Idaho online program is excellent.”

Goals

Richard’s goals as a genealogist are to base conclusions of family linkage on solid primary sources where possible, or analysis of secondary sources that give support to needed conclusions. He plans to continue finding clients by referral, advertising, marketing, internet exposure, and speaking at conferences and workshops or firesides, and loves finding new people who can use his services.

With a goal to keep clients happy by meeting their needs, Richard strives to always provide them with something new, whether that is identifying new ancestors, helping LDS clients with their unique goals, or finding new information not previously known in difficult research problems.

Current and Future Research Projects 

Richard has many research projects he is involved in. He lectures every year at conferences, giving new thought to new subjects. He is interested in ancestors and descendants of Rev. John Lothropp/Lathrop. He has plans to publish research results for several families.

Websites

Richard’s websites are www.pricegen.com  and Immigrant Servants database. They have indexed all immigrant servant records they could gain access to, mostly from the British Isles to North America.

Price & Associates, Inc.

Richard Price has an office in downtown Salt Lake City. His company, Price & Associates, Inc. hires many professional genealogists.  They prefer Accredited Genealogist researchers but also appreciate Certified Genealogists and others with degrees or many years’ experience.   They are always looking for good researchers to assist in solving ancestral dilemmas. They are seeking researchers who have good analytical skills, can determine correct ancestral lines through the use of original research, and are adept at genealogical report-writing.

Richard has been a full-time professional genealogist since 1976, and received his AG credential in 1979. His company does research in North and Central America and in most European and Asian countries, South Africa, etc. They send researchers to the British Isles and to Germany every year, and often have projects in  Italy, Lithuania, Croatia and other European countries.

 

Spotlight on Suzannah Beasley, AG®

Suzannah Profile (1)

Meet Suzannah Beasley, AG, who is accredited for research in the U.S. New England States.

Accreditation

Becoming an accredited genealogist was always the goal for Suzannah once she stepped on the genealogy path. Suzannah started BYU with the intention of being a dietitian with a minor in family history. During her sophomore year, she realized that she was enjoying her family history classes more than her nutrition classes, so she switched her major to family history. Suzannah graduated with her degree in Family History – Genealogy from BYU in 2009. Her love for New England research was cemented as she interned and later worked for the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. As Suzannah started working for her own clients, she knew it was time to finish the accreditation process. She became an accredited genealogist in 2011.

Projects

Suzannah knows that once you start researching for clients, you quickly find that no two families are alike. Suzannah has researched for, or has supervised research for, more than 700 genealogy cases. They have varied far and wide from early colonial research to the present day. Her most memorable case was when she helped her client find his birth family. After all of the research and phone calls it was amazing to see three siblings meet each other after not knowing each other for forty years.

New England

While the six New England states don’t cover many acres of land, they cover an enormous amount of history, and many families in the United States have at least some roots in New England. It is an amazing place to research because of the quality of the records. For instance, many areas of the United States didn’t start recording birth records until after 1900. New England started recording birth information in the 1600’s.

When Suzannah was working on her four generation project to become an accredited genealogist, she was living in New England. She did extensive research on her family using online resources, personal trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake, as well as visiting the National Archives branch in Boston. After doing all of that research, she decided she wanted to go to New Hampshire and Connecticut to see the farms where her family had lived. She also planned on visiting cemeteries, the local historical societies, and the town libraries to do research, but she didn’t think she would find much more information, if anything. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Those personal visits provided a wealth of information that wasn’t available elsewhere. The information and stories she found made Suzannah’s ancestors more than just names on a piece of paper. Good genealogy research can transform names and dates into real people.

Since then Suzannah has worked hard to convey this lesson to the researchers who have worked for her, students she has taught at BYU-Idaho, and to many others she has helped. While there are many wonderful resources online, and more records in archives, there are many records that haven’t been gathered. They are still in local churches, libraries, or are held by family members. Sometimes when we are stuck on a brick wall, we can solve it by finding key records that take a little more effort to gather.

For more information about Suzannah, you can visit her website atwww.globalgenealogists.com.