What a Genealogist Charges vs What a Decode Costs

At some point in your family history research, you're going to hit a wall. You've found your ancestor's service record on the National Archives of Australia website. You've downloaded the scanned pages. And now you're looking at handwritten entries in faded ink, packed with abbreviations you don't recognise, referencing units and locations you've never heard of.

This is the point where most people start wondering whether they should hire a professional genealogist. It's a reasonable thought - and for certain types of family history research, a genealogist is exactly the right answer. But if your specific goal is to understand what's on a military service record, a professional genealogist and a decode service are very different things, at very different price points, solving very different problems.

What a professional genealogist does

A professional genealogist is a researcher. You hire them to investigate a question - "who were my great-grandmother's parents?" or "where did the family come from before they arrived in Australia?" - and they go and find out. That typically involves searching across multiple archives, databases, church records, civil registration systems, immigration records, and sometimes international repositories.

Good genealogists are highly skilled researchers. Many hold qualifications from the Society of Australian Genealogists or equivalent professional bodies. They know where to look, what to look for, and how to interpret what they find across a wide range of record types and time periods.

The scope of their work is broad by design. You're hiring them to follow a research trail wherever it leads, across however many sources it takes to answer your question.

What a genealogist typically charges

Professional genealogists in Australia generally charge between $40 and $100 per hour, with more experienced or specialised researchers charging up to $200 per hour. International firms that coordinate research across multiple countries can charge $100 to $200+ per hour, often sold in blocks of 10, 25, or even 100 hours.

Most genealogists require a retainer upfront - typically a minimum of 5 to 10 hours - before they begin work. Additional expenses such as archive access fees, photocopying, postage, and travel to repositories may be charged on top of the hourly rate. Some genealogists offer flat-rate packages for defined projects, but these often start at $500 for basic research and can run into thousands for comprehensive family histories.

For a project focused specifically on interpreting one military service record - reading the entries, understanding the abbreviations, and placing the service in historical context - you could be looking at 3 to 8 hours of a genealogist's time, depending on the complexity of the record and how much contextual research they do. At $75 per hour (a mid-range Australian rate), that's $225 to $600 for a single record.

This isn't a criticism of genealogists or their rates. They're charging for expertise, experience, and the time it takes to do thorough research. But it does mean that for a family with one specific question - "what does this service record actually say?" - the cost of hiring a genealogist can feel disproportionate to the scope of what they need.

What a decode does differently

A Decode My Digger decode is not genealogy research. It doesn't trace your family tree, search for birth certificates, or investigate immigration records. It does one thing, and it does it thoroughly: it takes an Australian military service record and turns it into something a family can read, understand, and keep.

The decode produces two documents. The first is a line-by-line Excel spreadsheet that takes every entry on the original record - every abbreviation, every date, every unit reference, every medical entry - and pairs it with a plain-language translation in modern terminology. The second is a contextualised Word narrative that places the service record within the broader story of the war, mapping dates and unit movements to real battles and campaigns.

It's five layers of reconstruction and research, not a glossary lookup. For a deeper look at exactly what you receive, see what you get when you decode a war record.

The cost comparison

A Decode My Digger decode is a flat fee of $59 AUD per record. No hourly rates. No retainers. No minimum blocks. No additional charges for archive access, photocopying, or travel. You upload the record, you pay $59, and you receive both documents back.

To put that in perspective: $59 is less than one hour of a mid-range genealogist's time. For the cost of a genealogist's initial consultation, you get the entire record decoded, translated, and contextualised into two finished documents - the Excel spreadsheet and the Word narrative.

If you have three ancestors who served - which is common for Australian families with connections to both world wars - decoding all three records costs $117. That's still less than most genealogists charge for their minimum retainer on a single project.

When to hire a genealogist instead

A decode is the right choice when you already have the service record (or can request it from the NAA) and your primary goal is to understand what's on it. But there are situations where a genealogist is the better option.

If you don't know the name or service number of the person who served, a genealogist can help you find them. If you're trying to build a broader family tree that extends beyond military service, a genealogist covers the civilian records - births, deaths, marriages, immigration, land ownership - that a decode service doesn't touch. If you need research conducted in international archives (for example, tracing a family back to England, Ireland, or Scotland before they emigrated to Australia), that's genealogy work.

The two services are complementary, not competing. A genealogist finds the people. A decode reads the record. Some families use both - a genealogist to build the tree and identify which ancestors served, and a decode to understand each service record in detail.

What you're actually comparing

The real comparison isn't just price. It's what you get for the money and how quickly you get it.

With a genealogist, you typically wait for an initial consultation, agree on a scope, pay a retainer, wait for the research to be completed (which could take weeks or months depending on their workload and the complexity of the project), and then receive a research report. The quality depends entirely on the individual genealogist you hire.

With a decode, you upload the record, pay the flat fee, and receive two finished documents - the Excel spreadsheet and the Word narrative. The deliverables are standardised and consistent. Every record goes through the same five-layer reconstruction process.

Both approaches have their place. But if what you're holding is a service record full of abbreviations and handwriting you can't read, and what you want is to understand what it says and what it means for your family's history, the decode is built specifically for that problem.

A note on doing it yourself

There's a third option, of course: doing the research yourself. It's entirely possible, and the blog has guides that can help. The five things you can learn from a war record gives you an idea of what's there. The abbreviations guide, the handwriting guide, and the conflict-specific research guides walk you through the interpretation process step by step.

The trade-off is time. A single WWI service record might contain dozens of entries across 20 or more pages, each one requiring cross-referencing against unit histories, campaign timelines, and administrative procedures. If you enjoy that kind of research, the tools are available. If you'd rather have it done and delivered, the decode exists for exactly that reason.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a Decode My Digger decode cost?

$59 AUD per record, flat fee. No hourly rates, no retainers, no hidden charges. That covers both the Excel spreadsheet (line-by-line translation) and the Word narrative (contextualised story of the service).

How much does a professional genealogist charge in Australia?

Rates vary, but most Australian genealogists charge between $40 and $100 per hour, with specialists or firms charging up to $200 per hour. Most require a minimum retainer of 5 to 10 hours upfront. A project focused on interpreting a single military service record could cost $225 to $600 or more depending on the genealogist's rate and the time required.

Can a genealogist decode a military service record?

Some genealogists have experience with military records, but it depends on their area of specialisation. Military record interpretation requires specific knowledge of service abbreviations, unit structures, and wartime administrative processes that not all genealogists possess. A decode service specialises in exactly this type of record.

Do I need a genealogist if I already have the service record?

Not necessarily. If your goal is to understand what the service record says, a decode covers that. A genealogist is the right choice if you want to extend your research beyond the military record into broader family history - tracing ancestry, finding civilian records, or building a family tree.

Can I use both a genealogist and a decode service?

Yes, and many families do. A genealogist can help identify which ancestors served and locate their records. A Decode My Digger decode then interprets each service record in detail, producing finished documents the family can keep and share. The two services complement each other.