I can't believe this....

I am so pissed right now I could scream.

Last year, in desperation trying to find one of my original 10 Smiths I've been researching, I knew I was going to need help.

One of them died in Maryland, and I still had no information when and where she died, or the details behind her death. All the 7 years I've been researching this family, and I have never been able to find her. The area where she lived in Western Maryland is very rural, and not much is online about it.

I used a genealogist on the Maryland Archives site, and contacted him either late last year or VERY early this year-- it's hard to remember exactly when. I sent him a $50 retainer, and a list of what I wanted found.

First, it was winter weather preventing a trip, which I understood. He lives in an adjoining state, and these are mountainous country roads. OK, no sweat. Then, he was behind in his jobs. OK, I cut him some slack. Then he hurt his back, so wanted to give him time to recover.

Today, I got an e-mail from him-- 9-10 months after the fact, that he is returning the remainder of my retainer (all $20 of it), and is finally telling me he can't complete the job.

How out of the norm is this? Does anyone have any experience with genealogists and what their usual backlog is? I'm considering filing a complaint with some sort of board, but would like to know if I'm being unreasonable here.

Anyone?

I was a Random Acts Of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) volunteer for a couple of years and they had certain requirements. One of them was no more than 2 requests a month so people should expect a backlog. But I'm talking volunteers here. This person was a paid genealogist. That's very different as far as I'm concerned.

Wouldn't hurt to also complain to what ever consumer protection agency they have in Maryland. He may not have stolen your money but he didn't complete his work as promised.

And I would consider trying RootsWeb's Random Acts Of Genealogical Kindness if you haven't already. There may be someone willing to do cemetery lookups for free in the part of Maryland your researching. And RootsWeb has an RAOGK complaint department. They work to prevent bad situations from happening. Problem is, in the more rural areas, sometimes there's only one volunteer so they are hesitant to be too strict.

Seriously, those people RAWK.

I could not finish my book without them. I get obits from them CONSTANTLY. Then I use those obits to look up the next of kin, check SSDI, then repeat the process, constantly finding newer cousins in the process.

My only problems crop up in areas like rural Western Maryland when there is no one able to look up obits for that county or township.

And one of the women I didn't have a definite death date for, so it was going to require more in-depth research.

Nice to know I'm not being too unreasonable.