Genealogical and local history articles and research services
Fees
The nature of historical research is such that some information may come easily and other information may be elusive. Necessarily, fees need to be flexible, but at the same time, our own reputation stands on being able to deliver value for money.
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Hence, our fees are tailored to your needs; whether it be an illustrated seize quartiers overview, or a deep-dive into an ancestral family line. Such a consultation may result simply in advice for your own research, or a detailed plan for our work on your family project.
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In essence, our rate for desk-based research and write-ups is £15 per hour, and the fees described below are based on that. This low rate is offered only whilst in study for full IHGS accreditation, but the work we present as articles on this site demonstrates the quality you can expect. Work that involves travel incorporates this fee and adds the basic expenses of mileage and parking.
Initial Consultation
£50
Firstly, we'll need to discuss you, your known ancestry, and your needs in a 30 minute voice or video call. Please complete the form below with a desired time and date for our consultation. If you are outside the UK, please include your time zone and note that I am only available for consultation between 09:00 and 23:30 UK time.
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There is no obligation to purchase a further service from us but, if you do, the cost of this consultation will be deducted from your first commission.
Your Seize Quartiers (digital)
£195
Greenwood Genealogy will research your pedigree from you back to your sixteen 2GGs (31 individuals in total) using information we have discussed during the consultation above using all records that are available to us online.
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Greenwood Genealogy will supply a private, online genealogy journal that details our work, which is an important source to understand the records and methods used to arrive at the pedigree and keep track of your overall research, culminating with advice on further steps.
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Greenwood Genealogy will supply a graphical timeline pedigree that details names, birth, marriage, death and occupation information in high-quality format suitable for printing.
Life Story
£75 per individual or
£1,500 full seize
Using the information gained in our initial consultation and the research into your seize quartiers recorded in your genealogy journal, Greenwood Genealogy will deepen the research into a specified individual using all available online resources.
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From this, Greenwood Genealogy will write a Life Story of your ancestor in prose, making note of significant historical events in the regions where they were.
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Greenwood Genealogy will include relevant OS maps (over 50 years old), photographs of significant places, newspaper cuttings, and a Lifemap showing the general route your ancestor took from life to death.
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Greenwood Genealogy will append a section detailing the currently understood origins of their surname, collated from and attributed to the relevant sources.
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Of course, we would recommend a compilation of Life Stories for all ancestors in your seize quartiers. As their stories will have considerable overlap, if you choose to commission these together, the cost reduces to £50 per individual to a maximum of £1,500.
Illuminating Your Living Connections
£225
Using your seize quartiers, Greenwood Genealogy will extend your family tree forward in time to identify your second and third cousins and their descendants. With your permission, Greenwood Genealogy will contact them and make enquiries as to your common lineage to see if stories or heirlooms have been passed down their family line. It may be that we discover individuals who have already undertaken significant genealogical work who would be able to contribute to your story.
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In our frequent experience, contact can be initiated, but not responded to for a good number of weeks, or even months. Therefore, after the initial research is completed and contacts identified, we will treat this project as having an open-ended timescale and will update you as information is supplied to us.
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Greenwood Genealogy will supply the pertinent genealogical journal detailing our work and sources and a record of contact information and transcripts of communication.
Extending Your Ancestry (digital)
£195
After choosing one of your sixteen 2GGs, Greenwood Genealogy will research their pedigree back to sixteen of your 6GGs (30 individuals in total) using all records that are available to me online.
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As before, Greenwood Genealogy will supply a private, online genealogy journal that details our work, which is an important source to understand the records and methods used to arrive at the pedigree and keep track of your overall research, culminating with advice on further steps.
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Greenwood Genealogy will supply a graphical timeline pedigree that details names, birth, marriage, death and occupation information in high-quality format suitable for printing.
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Please note that these individuals likely lived at a time when records were incomplete. In case there is a 'brick wall', Greenwood Genealogy will refund £5 for each of your 30 ancestors where we can only find evidence of their name (or less) and provide recommendations for next steps (usually field research or DNA matching).
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Our priority is accuracy over satisfaction. We would prefer compensating you rather than to make unconfirmed assumptions simply to 'complete' your tree and be paid.
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Of course, it's possible for us to repeat this task sixteen times, once for each of your 2GGs.
DNA Match Analysis
£225
Note: You will need to have taken a DNA test. See here for our guide and recommendation for this.
This is suitable once you have a sourced seize quartiers and can be used well in conjunction when Extending Your Ancestry (to your 6GG) or even beyond to your 9GG.
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Greenwood Genealogy will review your (or your family member's) DNA matches, collating them into clusters and hence extending your family tree on whichever software you prefer.
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Greenwood Genealogy will use the information to confirm genetic paths through your tree. Often, this will mean being able to confirm ancestors that were previously only possibilities. In other cases, it can completely break down brick walls.
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Greenwood Genealogy will contact living connections matched to your tree, much in the same way as in Illuminating Your Living Connections above. As with that task, we consider this an open-ended task and will keep you appraised of subsequent contacts and matches as more relatives share their DNA online.
The Full Extent
£195
This is for those who have extended their ancestry to their 6GGs and want to go further.
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Greenwood Genealogy will prepare a genealogy journal and extend your tree with 13 hours' desk-based research. That may seem ambiguous, but necessarily at this stage there will be more brick walls as records become more infrequent.
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We hope by this point you will have experienced our work and be satisfied that Greenwood Genealogy will provide the results that we can with integrity.
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Note that it is rare indeed to find written record of individuals in the UK before 1600 that have been digitised, beyond the parish registers. It is more likely that we will be able to provide lists of physical records to review, or local archives where there may be pertinent evidence. We would encourage you to send us to investigate as a Fieldwork Commission (see below).
Commissioned Works/
Fieldwork
£ varies
​Research specified by yourself, or after our recommendation, using our expertise and resources. This may be any genealogical research or analysis, research into an ancestral family or individual, or historical research into a local area. It can include interviews, trips to archives, graveyards, towns etc. and will return photographs or transcriptions as requested.
The nature of this means that final fees will be based upon what we agree in advance, but so you can get an idea, that would entail:
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£15 per hour of work or travel.
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If undertaking fieldwork, mileage of £1 per 2 miles of travel by car or, if cheaper, the cost of public transport and any parking.
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Possible accommodation costs (for locations that would require overnight stays, see here) at around £100 per night, dependent on availability and notice.
Your Dedicated Researcher
£520 per month
Currently Available
This option is for those would have us carry on and deliver desk-based research under our own direction at a rate of one full day's work per week.
Please note that we are only able to take four clients at this level at any time, so we do maintain a waiting list for when we complete our work on a client's genealogical journey.
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Greenwood Genealogy will manage your family tree project from start to end, providing monthly updates in the form of a Genealogy Journal.
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Greenwood Genealogy will provide digital seize quartiers of yourself and your 16 2GGs as we complete them. We will illuminate your living connections, analyse your DNA matches (if you have been tested), and subsequently push the full extent of your tree.
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Greenwood Genealogy will supply our recommendations for fieldwork, though this would incur additional travel costs as described adjacent and is completely optional.
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There is no obligation to continue this subscription should you wish to end it, but we would ask the grace of two weeks notice in the case that you do.