Hourly Rate Service

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Description:

This is an hourly research service, to suit your needs and your budget, at a rate of £20 per hour.  A minimum of one hour's research is required.  As a guide, four hours is normally sufficient to research one line of your family back to around 1800.  This is purely a guide however as individual jobs can vary.  Generally more time will be required the earlier the date.  Please note that the charges include any search fees I incur, the costs involved in producing a report detailing the information obtained, and post and packing.  The information supplied will be presented with full transcripts of the records so that you can learn as much as possible from your research.

Research can be commenced on your instruction, but payment is required before the report will be released to you.  I will transfer the information obtained at the completion of each agreed timescale.  If I do not think that the search is feasible, or if it is likely to prove particularly time consuming, then I will advise you of this before commencing.

Supply me with the information that you have and let me search for your ancestors.  I will work closely with you, using what family information you have, verifying this and extending your family history.  Specific areas of your ancestry may be of particular interest to you, and I will be happy to be guided by you in prioritising the search.

If you wish to proceed, click here.

Additional Services - Copy of Record

Should you subsequently decide that you wish a copy of any of the records already reported to you, this will be charged at £5 per copy.  If you wish a legal copy of a record before 1900, or a copy of a record after 1900, then this will cost £15.

Additional Services - Family Tree

Should you subsequently decide that you wish part or all of the information already reported presented in a family tree format, this will be charged at a rate of £20 per hour to enter the information plus £10 per tree for printing on high quality paper.  Please ask for a quote. 

Additional Service - Formal Bound Report

Should you wish a more formal report, this can be provided at a cost of an additional £100 and will include 
-formal binding, prefaced by your family crest, tartan and a description of the family name (subject to availability of information on the name in question).
-a detailed report as given above
-one or more family trees, depending on the number of individuals covered
-a description of sociological changes in Scotland in general, and statistical accounts of relevant parishes in particular
-a separate A3 size family tree printed with your family crest and/or tartan, if available, on high quality paper suitable for wall mounting. 

Helpful Pointers:

1. I will need a point at which to commence the search.  Ideally this should be the date of an event in Scotland after 1855, but if you don't have this, don't despair.  Contact me as it may very well still be possible to make progress, depending on how unusual your family name is, how populated the area is that they were from, and how many family members you know.  For example, using census records it may be possible to identify a family group successfully.

2. The more information that you can supply, the better the base I have to work from.  Small details, which may seem irrelevant, can sometimes prove invaluable in verifying subsequent information, or in directing the search.

3. Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths commenced in 1855 in Scotland, and records after this date are relatively complete.  There are however still errors and omissions which can cause problems when trying to locate specific records.

4. Records before 1855 are Church of Scotland Parish Records, and their accuracy and even existence is dependent on the record keeping abilities of individual ministers, and the preservation of these records.  The oldest parish records date back to 1553, but for some parishes there are no surviving records at all.  There are however other sources which can provide information.  To see the sources that I can search, click here.

5. The level of information available also varies.  Information after 1855 is good, and it is possible really to begin to build up a picture of how your ancestors lived.  What they did for a living, what sort of conditions they lived in, their brothers and sisters, and what they died of, can all be ascertained.  Information before 1855 is more basic, and it can sometimes be very difficult to verify the information from that source alone.  If possible I will seek to verify this from other sources, and at all times I will advise you of the proof or degree of probability of information provided.

6. Try not to set your heart on finding a particular record or set of records.  Remember, for example, that the female line of your family is as closely related to you as the male line.  The more complete the information you build, the more rewarding you will find the experience, and the easier you will understand your Scottish ancestors and how they helped shape you, generation by generation.