Family Tree Research Charges

Looking for Fixed Rate packages or Pay-As-You-Go?

Hourly Rate for Family Tree research

Family Researcher ancestor photo

My rates are very competitive at only £20 per hour. I usually recommend an initial purchase of 4 hours work, but if you require as little as 1 hour that is completely up to you. When I report back on the progress made, you can decide how you would like me to proceed.

There is no obligation to purchase further time, but if you are impressed with my results you may well wish to do so.

For more information, take a look at my Family Tree Services and Testimonial pages.

If you would like a free consultation, simply email me for more information.

Hourly Rate £20

When you are ready to place an order by credit card, click the 'Buy Now' button adjacent. You can adjust the number of hours to suit your needs. You do not need to have a Paypal account to pay by credit card.

If you prefer to pay by cheque, please contact me for details.

For further information about ordering birth, marriage and death certificates during your research project, please see below.

Fixed Price Research Packages

Prefer to pay a fixed price, rather than an hourly rate? No problem, I have a range of fixed price family tree packages available to choose from.

Silver Package £350

This package is ideal for anyone who would like me to trace the ancestry of, for example, both their parents.

The Silver research package includes tracing two family lines back as far back as feasible from available records. Often this will be as far back as the early 1800s, or earlier if records have survived. This package includes up to five birth, marriage or death certificates. At no extra cost, the results can be sent to you in a presentation pack containing family trees, certificates, census information and any other documents and information discovered during the research project.

If you would like more than one copy, additional Presentation Packs are available to order.

Gold Package £925

This is the ultimate gold service project, aimed at someone who wants the fullest possible six to eight month investigation into their family tree.

The price includes searching and copying of Parish Records and Census returns, plus copies of all the relevant documents found when researching your family. There will be no extra charges for up to 12 birth marriage or death Certificates, or ordering films of Parish Records. This in-depth research project can take about six to eight months, and you will be kept informed of progress made, with regular updates so you can see how research is progressing. The Gold research package includes tracing a person's Great-Grandparents family lines back as far as records allow. This usually means fully researching up to eight family lines back as far as feasible from available records, often to the early 1800s, or earlier if records have survived.

  • Upon completion you will receive your family trees (one per family line) in a presentation pack together with photocopies or transcripts of your family records, birth, marriage or death certificates and any other documents and information uncovered about your family.

Dependant upon available records these may include, for example:

  • WW1 service records
  • Apprentice records
  • Criminal records(!)
  • Probate records
  • Census transcripts
  • Parish records
  • Your ancestor's picture
  • Information about places and institutions related to your ancestor's history
  • Any other relevant details uncovered
  • If we find evidence that you are related to nobility or an historical celebrity then that will be included too!

Does not suffer the restrictions of top price packages offered by other family tree researchers.

  • One difference between my gold package and top price research packages from many other online family tree researchers is that if you want me to I will routinely include ancestor's siblings (brothers and sisters) in your family tree. The extra detail helps to paint a fuller picture of the lives of your family members in times long gone. Packages from some other researchers will only trace your family line straight back (i.e. parent, grandparent, great grandparent etc.) and exclude these extra facts and details. I have no hidden charge for doing this.
  • Another difference is that research packages from some family tree researchers will limit the number of generations back they are prepared to investigate. I don't do that, instead I go back as far as historical records allow.
  • Some researchers will limit the number of direct ancestors they are prepared to research or include in your family tree, such as 30 ancestors. My gold package does not have this artificial limitation either.

Additional Presentation Packs

Both my Silver and Gold packages include a presentation pack, as described above, within the price of the package.

Should you wish to order additional presentation packs, for example to give to relatives as a special gift, I can provide these too. The cost is £40 per additional pack, to cover the cost of printing and also postage by Special Delivery within the UK.

For overseas deliveries, please contact me beforehand.

Budget Conscious?

I would suggest steering clear of websites offering unrealistic sounding prices such as unlimited research time for small sums of money, e.g. £10 - £100. For the budget-conscious my price for 3 -4 hours research time works out similar. The difference is that with me you are getting genuine research and quality results from an established professional researcher rather than gambling on an offer that sounds too good to be true.

Rather than just providing you with the bare bones of information taken from census records, I prefer to flesh out the details of your family tree by looking into a variety of additional sources of information in order to bring your family tree alive with detail and meaning.

It is the extra details which turn your family tree from a boring list into a family heirloom of sentimental value. Those looking for a cheap and cheerful family tree service would be well advised to hire me for 2, 3, or 4 hours to research into your ancestry.

Certificate purchases during your research project

Sometimes, in order to research a family tree, we find it necessary to purchase one or more birth, marriage, or death certificates. This may arise, for example, if you are unable to provide much in the way of starting details.

My Silver and Gold packages include the purchase of a specified number of certificates, as detailed above. For customers who prefer my hourly rate option, please be aware that this low price does not include any certificate purchases.

For customers who choose to hire me on an hourly basis, if we find ourselves in a situation where it is necessary to purchase a certificate in order to proceed with your family tree project, I will discuss options with you. Some customers prefer to make an extra payment to purchase certificates (which can be posted to you after the project), and some prefer to reduce the number of research hours and deduct the certificate cost from their initial payment. I am flexible on this.

How to pay for packages

To pay by credit card or by PayPal, use the corresponding Buy Now button above, for the research package of your choosing. You do not need to have a Paypal account to pay by credit card. If you prefer to pay by cheque or by instalments please email me for details. Research will start once the cheque has cleared or payment has been received.

In the unlikely event that I can find no information on your family, the price of your package will be refunded less 10% to cover the initial searches.

Additional Family Tree and related research services

In addition to providing a cost effective family tree research service, I also offer several additional family tree related services, such as birth, marriage and death certificate ordering, ordering and placing flowers on local graves for overseas relatives, family tree gift certificates and free searches of local records of Blitz deaths.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that by their nature, surviving family records are often misleading or inaccurate. Many historical records contain illegible handwriting, multiple variations of surname spellings and a variety of errors. Official authoritative electronic databases often contain mis-transcriptions of original texts, particularly where the transcription has been undertaken overseas. For this reason, every family tree research project is vulnerable to the occasional inaccuracy. I make every reasonable effort to verify the findings of my research, however while the quality of my own research is of a high standard, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the findings where evidence is unreliable or contradictory. If you believe you have spotted a mistake in my research findings then please contact me with the full details. I may, at my discretion, be able to verify your findings and update the family tree documents for you at no charge.

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