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(1981): FIRST JOB right out of Brigham Young University (BYU)
For online BYU Alumni Survey (1st 250 characters, i.e. 1st paragraph only)
“Being highly interested in my own ancestry, genealogy & family history, I avidly sought to work for a research firm in Salt Lake City. In 1981, Larry Piatt paid me $6/hour to be his research assistant for the Institute of Family Research. I Loved it!”
Thank you, Larry Piatt–wherever you are. On that income, Karl bought his first starter home!
In 1984, Karl-Michael Sala then went on to become an Accredited Genealogist (Germany). To qualify to even take the all-day, pro-active, written exam, one had to have 1,000 hours of experience.
Then, if you pass that, you get a subsequent verbal exam. Oh, gosh, Karl was fervently grilled by Roy Spjut, AG, test administrator for the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“How do you KNOW that this Johann Schmidt is the right one? There are three of them born in the same time frame & there are NO other records to stipulate what year he was born or the names of his parents!”
The answer is that the genealogist simply cannot be sure. The genealogist must state to the client all the reasons for selecting a particular Johann Schmidt. However, in the absence of a record that states when the target ancestor was born, or precisely whom his parents at birth were, the professional genealogist can only clarify all the reasons for his hypothesis. He must caveat & clarify his supporting reasons. However, the exact one sometimes just simply CANNOT BE PROVEN!
