---
title: "Forensic Genealogist"
description: "Researches family trees and DNA matches for legal purposes, such as finding missing heirs, identifying unknown remains and helping solve cold cases."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/forensic-genealogist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Forensic Genealogist

**Category:** Educational Instruction and Library · **SOC code:** 25-4011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 25-4011.00

Researches family trees and DNA matches for legal purposes, such as finding missing heirs, identifying unknown remains and helping solve cold cases.

Also advertised as: Investigative Genetic Genealogist; Heir Search Genealogist; Probate Genealogist; Professional Genealogist; Genetic Genealogist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $64,550 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $31.03/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,970 to $110,550, with the middle half between $50,680 and $83,020
- **Total US employment:** 7,970
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 31/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 7,970 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,970 |
| 25th | $50,680 |
| 50th (median) | $64,550 |
| 75th | $83,020 |
| 90th | $110,550 |
| Mean (average) | $70,640 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $93,040 | $84,658 | 200 |
| CT | $79,790 | $77,010 | 160 |
| MA | $78,180 | $73,924 | 270 |
| RI | $76,990 | $75,274 | 40 |
| WA | $76,490 | $71,477 | 640 |
| MD | $76,440 | $72,828 | 660 |
| NY | $73,860 | $68,439 | 960 |
| CA | $70,530 | $63,701 | 1,160 |
| NJ | $67,900 | $62,405 | 70 |
| MN | $65,740 | $66,659 | 90 |
| MI | $63,890 | $66,402 | 160 |
| OR | $61,880 | $59,868 | 70 |
| NH | $61,410 | $58,955 | 50 |
| PA | $60,690 | $62,200 | 360 |
| MO | $60,020 | $66,089 | 150 |

24 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 39 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/forensic-genealogist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/forensic-genealogist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 10,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 10,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 300 jobs, or +3.4%. About as fast as average: 3.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Master's Degree | 83.9% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 6.5% |
| Post-Master's Certificate | 6.5% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 3.2% |

## What the work involves

- Research vital records, census data and court files to build family trees
- Locate missing or unknown heirs for estates and probate cases
- Analyze DNA match lists to identify unknown persons
- Write proof arguments and reports for attorneys and courts
- Testify or prepare affidavits about research findings
- Search archives, newspapers and land records
- Follow evidence and documentation standards for legal work
- Coordinate with law enforcement, medical examiners or attorneys

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- History and Archeology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Category Flexibility — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Investigative (I), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.97 |
| I — Investigative | 5.10 |
| A — Artistic | 3.46 |
| S — Social | 2.96 |
| R — Realistic | 2.88 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.83 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 76.1 |
| INTJ | 75.0 |
| ISFJ | 68.7 |
| INFJ | 62.4 |
| ISTP | 61.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, INTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Archivist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/archivist) — median $64,550
- [Librarian](https://nuecareer.com/careers/librarian) — median $68,270
- [Historian](https://nuecareer.com/careers/historian) — median $76,750
- [Curator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/curator) — median $63,420
- [Document Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/document-management-specialist) — median $116,580
- [Library Science Teacher, Postsecondary](https://nuecareer.com/careers/library-science-teacher-postsecondary) — median $80,340
- [Social Science Research Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-science-research-assistant) — median $61,990
- [Museum Technician and Conservator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/museum-technician-and-conservator) — median $51,440
- [Statistical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/statistical-assistant) — median $50,330
- [Anthropologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/anthropologist) — median $70,770

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/forensic-genealogist