Frequently Asked Questions
How much will researching my family tree cost?
The initial consultation is free. I charge £20 per hour for research, with any supporting documents provided at cost. For first-time research, I recommend a basic package of £80 which includes 3 hours of research time and 1 hour of collating and summarising information (see prices page for details). Otherwise, I will tailor my research to your specifications with a strict limit on the final bill with a proviso that I will suspend the project if further research is likely to prove fruitless or considerably more time-consuming than previously anticipated. In such a scenario, it will be up to you to decide whether to continue with the project. As to the actual cost, this will be determined by your budget and how far back in time you want to trace your ancestors, and depending on what supplementary information you would like to discover. Please note that the more information I have to go on (e.g., names, addresses, dates of birth etc., of your immediate relatives), the easier and faster the research will be. All these details will be discussed at the initial free consultation.
How far back can you trace my ancestors?
Tracing a line back to a UK-based ancestor who was born in the early 19th Century using the census records is relatively straightforward, and can normally be done within 3 hours (with a further hour requied to collate and summarise the information). Going further back can be problematic. If you have an ancestor with a title or who was a significant landowner or lead an illustrious life, and particularly if you have an unusual surname, there is scope for tracing back to the Elizabethan, Tudor or late Middle Ages. If, like most people, your ancestors were landless farm labourers, research has to rely on county or parish records which are often incomplete, only available locally, not necessarily digitised (or mistranscribed) and therefore must be searched manually. Having said that, increasing amounts of genealogical data is available online and as often happens, your family tree may well link up with an online tree researched by a distant cousin who has done all the research already.
What sort of information can you unearth?
If tracing back to the 19th Century using the UK census and BMD (birth/marriage/death) records you could expect the following information for each of your direct ancestors, his/her spouse, parents and siblings:
name
date and place of birth
the address at the time of a census
year of marriage (where applicable)
date of death.
The further back you go, however, the less complete, accurate or reliable the available data becomes. At the very least, you could expect a name, a date and place of birth. In addition to the above, if you are looking for more interesting information about an individual, there are numerous other sources (newspaper archives, military records, criminal records, passenger lists, etc.) which can yield gems of information which are not only fascinating in and of themselves, but can give vital clues for further research.
How reliable is the genealogical data?
An initial basic search back to the early 19th Century uses the census and BMD (birth/marriage/death) records as the primary research materials. All suppositions are cross-referenced and where necessary or efficacious a copy of birth certificate is ordered and the information is only entered into the research findings when demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt to be accurate and reliable. All supporting documents are supplied. Earlier than that, however, one wanders into the realm of the probable and earlier still, the possible. This being the case, I would make this clear in the research findings, as the probable and the possible can both act as 'leads' and prove valuable in the light of future discoveries.
Can I, a family member, or another professional researcher continue where you left off?
Yes. All data is saved as a GEDCOM file (the standard international format for genealogical data) which I make available to you at the conclusion of the agreed research project and also upload to ancestry.co.uk where you can chose to make it public or private, and you can nominate family members or a professional researcher by email to have editing privileges. NB All information about living relatives is kept strictly confidential.
What if my ancestors come from overseas?
This is perfectly doable, if more problematic. I am a modern languages graduate, and I have researched records from all over the world and in a number of different European languages. The problem lies with the fact that records vary in quality are often kept locally, are not digitised or available online. If this is the case, I would recommend continuing this line of research with an English-speaking researcher from the country concerned.