Not living in Ireland, I have considered paying someone else to do some research for me, but I am not very happy about the way researchers (individuals and organisations) seem to operate. Here in England it is often possible to engage a researcher to work in a kind of "piecemeal" fashion - to look up a few specific entries in registers, or to obtain a single census extract etc - but all the researchers I have found in Northern Ireland asked for a fee to cover maybe 3-4 hours work - and the rates are all higher than many English ones. I am reluctant to make this kind of arrangement because (a) I don't know at the start how much information I will get for the money; and (b) it feels as though I am handing over control of my research to someone else. In any case, it can be useful to assess a researcher on the basis of a small piece of work before asking them to do something bigger. The parish I am particularly interested in has had its memorial inscriptions transcribed, but these can only be accessed if you ask the body/bodies holding them to undertake a fuller research project. To obtain just the MIs I am interested in would cost getting on for 10 times what I might pay for a booklet or fiche of all the MIs for an English parish - and a full listing often allows you to discover much more information about the parish as a whole, as well as possibly new connections. Am I alone in feeling unhappy about these arrangements? And has anyone had any better experiences? Arthur Kennedy