Family Tree Research
TRACING ROOTS BACK FOR YOU
WHAT WE DO
Simply put, we can help "kickstart" your family tree by researching back to establish the history of the main branches of your family and building your base tree.
Sources are important as they provide the proof that lines and relationships in your family's history are linked and verified. We can locate primary and secondary sources, document them and, where possible, provide you with digital images for your records.
We can consolidate this material for you in a leading Family Tree database package or export the data in a format readable by almost every commercial family tree software package available, and in the global standard format as used by international bodies such as the International Genealogical Index.
It all starts with a phone or online conversation. At the bottom of this page is some information of what this conversation is about and what you can do to prepare for it.
Sources are important as they provide the proof that lines and relationships in your family's history are linked and verified. We can locate primary and secondary sources, document them and, where possible, provide you with digital images for your records.
We can consolidate this material for you in a leading Family Tree database package or export the data in a format readable by almost every commercial family tree software package available, and in the global standard format as used by international bodies such as the International Genealogical Index.
It all starts with a phone or online conversation. At the bottom of this page is some information of what this conversation is about and what you can do to prepare for it.
We locate records (sources) and provide citations for where they originate. Many sources are free, or obtainable by a subscription to several large family history databases. Some are purchasable from government agencies both here (such as the National Archives at Kew in London, and the General Register Office - the GRO) and abroad. Military service records are also purchasable by the same methods.
We have accounts with the main agencies for this purpose. We do not charge for sources located as the result of searches on free sites, or where an annual subscription is payable (these typically include census returns and the indexes of births, marriages and deaths) but we do recharge the cost price for sources which need to be purchased on a "per item" basis. We will discuss with you if and when such purchases may be necessary.
Typically a digital image of an entry in the births, marriages and deaths register (the actual entry itself, not the index of the entry) as held by the GRO costs about £3.50. A copy of a person's military service record may cost between £20 and £50 depending on the service they belonged to.
We have accounts with the main agencies for this purpose. We do not charge for sources located as the result of searches on free sites, or where an annual subscription is payable (these typically include census returns and the indexes of births, marriages and deaths) but we do recharge the cost price for sources which need to be purchased on a "per item" basis. We will discuss with you if and when such purchases may be necessary.
Typically a digital image of an entry in the births, marriages and deaths register (the actual entry itself, not the index of the entry) as held by the GRO costs about £3.50. A copy of a person's military service record may cost between £20 and £50 depending on the service they belonged to.
Detail from the "RootsMagic7" genealogical database program showing the typical "pedigree" layout in the background and a more detailed set of information and sources for a single person - Barbara Joan Tope
OUR INITIAL CONVERSATION - WHAT YOU CAN DO TO PREPARE
The first step in the FTR project is to speak to you to get to know a bit about you and what you're looking to achieve when building your family tree. Do you have any specific objectives or are you just curious to find out "who might be back there" so to speak? Do you have a long-lost relative you want to try and trace and find out more about? Perhaps you might want to try and build a bit more "texture" on the life of a favourite aunt or grandfather.
Secondly we'll ask you to provide some information that your memory alone may contain; your own significant dates for instance, together with those of your spouse/partner and/or close relatives. We'll also ask about your parents' generation and perhaps even your grandparents. Sometimes just a name can be very useful even if there is nothing else known about them. This process will take up most of our conversation time.
Have you got your own collection of evidence and sources, such as photos, birth, marriage & death certificates? Excellent! These can greatly help at the beginning of work on your family tree in order to provide a "base of validity" on which to build the new information once it arrives or is found. Providing us with copies of such records is invaluable in getting the family tree creation process going. However, don't worry if you don't have such records - a surprising amount of information can come from memory!
It will greatly speed up the process if you have as much of this information to hand before you call us. Many pieces of information could also be e-mailed to us beforehand too.
The first step in the FTR project is to speak to you to get to know a bit about you and what you're looking to achieve when building your family tree. Do you have any specific objectives or are you just curious to find out "who might be back there" so to speak? Do you have a long-lost relative you want to try and trace and find out more about? Perhaps you might want to try and build a bit more "texture" on the life of a favourite aunt or grandfather.
Secondly we'll ask you to provide some information that your memory alone may contain; your own significant dates for instance, together with those of your spouse/partner and/or close relatives. We'll also ask about your parents' generation and perhaps even your grandparents. Sometimes just a name can be very useful even if there is nothing else known about them. This process will take up most of our conversation time.
Have you got your own collection of evidence and sources, such as photos, birth, marriage & death certificates? Excellent! These can greatly help at the beginning of work on your family tree in order to provide a "base of validity" on which to build the new information once it arrives or is found. Providing us with copies of such records is invaluable in getting the family tree creation process going. However, don't worry if you don't have such records - a surprising amount of information can come from memory!
It will greatly speed up the process if you have as much of this information to hand before you call us. Many pieces of information could also be e-mailed to us beforehand too.
CONFIDENTIALITY
ALL INFORMATION PASSING BETWEEN FTR AND YOURSELF IS TREATED IN THE STRICTEST CONFIDENCE OF COURSE. We hold no data online and our data is backed up daily onto a hard drive which is then disconnected from our computer network.
Genealogical research is a fast-growing subject and many organisations, civil, religious and commercial, encourage the sharing of family tree information to assist others in their research. The Church of Latter Day Saints has made huge volumes of data available for searching and the big commercial online sites like Ancestry also encourage their members to share information. In the vast majority of cases - ourselves included - people have acquired more useful information for their own trees because links between their ancestors and ancestors of other people have been found that were previously unknown.
The choice is absolutely yours but if you decide you would like to make your family tree available (and therefore enjoy the benefits of this "quid pro quo" relationship) we can help and advise the best way of doing this. Depending on where your tree will go you can also decide how much of your tree you want to make public and if you wish to include source images or not. It is common practice, for instance, that living people are not included in publicly-available family trees.
ALL INFORMATION PASSING BETWEEN FTR AND YOURSELF IS TREATED IN THE STRICTEST CONFIDENCE OF COURSE. We hold no data online and our data is backed up daily onto a hard drive which is then disconnected from our computer network.
Genealogical research is a fast-growing subject and many organisations, civil, religious and commercial, encourage the sharing of family tree information to assist others in their research. The Church of Latter Day Saints has made huge volumes of data available for searching and the big commercial online sites like Ancestry also encourage their members to share information. In the vast majority of cases - ourselves included - people have acquired more useful information for their own trees because links between their ancestors and ancestors of other people have been found that were previously unknown.
The choice is absolutely yours but if you decide you would like to make your family tree available (and therefore enjoy the benefits of this "quid pro quo" relationship) we can help and advise the best way of doing this. Depending on where your tree will go you can also decide how much of your tree you want to make public and if you wish to include source images or not. It is common practice, for instance, that living people are not included in publicly-available family trees.
Embarassing?
If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
George Bernard Shaw
