One of the most important things I offer my clients is personalized research. Whether you want to know about the life of one ancestor or multiple ancestors, I am happy to customize your research project to what you want to learn about your family history. It is my goal to locate all the information I can find about each of your ancestors to provide you with a fascinating family story. I assure you that you will get to know each of your ancestors personally.
The most popular genealogy services I offer are listed below:
FAMILY TREE
Starting with you, I will research your ancestors moving backwards through each generation in time, and will begin creating a family tree. A complete family tree truly never ends. I’ve been doing my own tree for 15 years, and it is still not finished!
Because I customize my research, I always recommend that if you want a complete family tree that the research is completed in small portions such as a few generations at a time.
Research items included but are not limited to: Birth, marriage and death dates and places; occupation; where your ancestor(s) lived; immigration from another country; naturalization and citizenship; migration from another state; and military history. Each document, newspaper article and/or photo I find is added to your tree with source information.
PEDIGREE CHART
A family pedigree chart follows your direct family line ONLY. Going backwards in time, this type of chart will list each of your parents and then each of their parents. Therefore, it will include your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents and your great-great grandparents and so forth on both your mother’s and father’s side of the family. A pedigree chart does not branch out to include aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., as they are not part of your direct line of ancestors.
A family pedigree line generally goes back four to six generations and includes limited information for each individual ancestor listed on the chart such as name, date and place of birth, date and place of marriage, and date and place of death. This type of research can be a good starting place for a bigger genealogy project.
When researching ancestors for a pedigree chart, you must remember that the information included for each individual ancestor is limited to birth, marriage and death; and will not include any children a couple may have had together other than your direct ancestor. However, this type of research is a quicker way to get up your family tree.
FAMILY GROUP CHART
Researching a family group is a fun way to dive into one of your family’s specific generations. You will choose which generation and which line (maternal or paternal) to research. You also have the option of choosing more than one generation to research.
Researching a family group greatly broadens your family tree, as the research includes the children of your direct married ancestors that I am researching along with the name of each child’s spouse. However, the information listed for each person in the family group is typically limited to the same information as you would find on a pedigree chart such as dates and places of birth, marriage and death. Some charts may include immigration date, naturalization date, cause of death, and burial information.
With your authorization, I would love to dive deeper into the research for each individual, as this is where all the really interesting information about your ancestor is found. Providing my research results in a written report allows you to see each ancestor’s life story and that specific generation’s family story.
LET’S GET STARTED!
To start the research process, contact me and I will email you a Client Questionnaire. On this form, you will provide me as much information as you can about your family. Once you complete the paperwork, I will then meet with you in person or via Zoom, at no charge, to discuss exactly what you want to learn about your ancestors. At this meeting, you may choose the type of research service you are interested in, and we will develop an agreed upon research plan according to the service you choose and the ancestors you wish to have me research. If you are not sure where to start, then you can schedule a complimentary Zoom consultation with me, so we can discuss your family history project.
From my years of research experience, I have acquired an abundance of research resources and websites to use in locating documents, newspaper articles and even pictures of your ancestors. It is also very common for me to email or call various repositories, courts, libraries, and historical and genealogy societies to find much-needed documentation that relates to your ancestor if I cannot locate it online, because it has not been digitized yet.
At the conclusion of my research, you will receive a written report about your ancestor’s life story with my conclusions and further research recommendations. I will also attach the sourced documents, newspaper articles and photos I found for each individual ancestor. Additionally, the same information will be attached to your family tree. Because of my experience and my ability to access many different resources, it is generally faster and less expensive to hire me to perform your research!
Whatever family research service you choose, learning your family’s history is a wonderful way to get to know the facts, history and stories about your ancestors that walked before you. You may even discover that you want to learn more about your ancestors. I am warning you…it is very addicting!
OTHER RESEARCH SERVICES
Are you in need of specialized or unique research services? If you are then I am able to help you by specifically tailoring a research plan to your research needs. One of my favorite special research requests is researching the lives of smokejumpers from the 1940s-1960s for historical preservation purposes. So, please contact me if you have a special research request. I would be thrilled to help you with any of your research projects.
If you have questions or need clarification on any research services I offer or how the research process works, please contact me directly on my contact form. Happy Hunting!
