Whether you want a little help to get you started in researching your family history yourself or a full-scale genealogical report, we can handle it quickly, working within your budget. And you have the additional satisfaction of knowing that proceeds from these services go to OneHistory, which is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to making heard all the voices of American history.
Genealogical services:
Quick Start Consult
We will e-mail you a form to fill out with whatever information you have about your family. We will then begin your research for you and provide you with a plan for continuing the research on your own, including the resources we suggest that you use.
Basic rate $75
Follow-up consultations $20/hr with 1 hr minimum
Genealogical Report
All of our searches start with a beginning package. You may add to it later, after you have seen what we are able to report to you. Your results will, of course, depend in part on the information you are able to provide us with.
Beginning Package
3 hours of setup and creating a search plan, at $30/hour.
5 hours of online record searching, at $25/hour
3 hours of constructing the family tree and creating the report, with documentation, at $20/hour
$275
If your search plan proves to require archival searches, there will be an additional $5 per hour for search time. This includes searches of National Archives materials that we cannot access online, carried out by a Washington, D. C. associate. We ask for a retainer of $125 and will bill you for the remainder when we send the report.
Additional Packages
After we have sent you your first report, you may ask us to continue with our search, further back in time or farther afield. You can add increments of $165, each of which includes 5 hours of online search and 2 hours of updating your report. Again, there will be an additional $5 per hour for archival searches. If travel is required to other archives, we will discuss that option with you.
All reports will be provided either in print form (in a binder) or in a searchable pdf. For an additional charge, we can also create for you a family history database to which you can add information over the years.
Other Family History Services
Family Photograph Analysis
We will analyze your family photographs, determining approximate dates and locations based on internal evidence and whatever family history you can provide. We will give you the results of our analysis in the form of captions for your photographs. We can also scan and restore your photographs and give you information about storing and preserving them.
Basic rate $250 (up to 20 photographs)
Additional photographs, $10 each
Scanning $3, minor restoration $15, major restoration $30/hr
Historical Backgrounding
Again, we will ask you to fill out a form with whatever family history you can provide. We will provide you with the historical context for your family's story, including information about specific events that would have affected your family, with images and maps.
Rate $30/hour, with a 5-hour minimum (We will provide you with an estimate at the beginning of the job.)
Hilary Mac Austin
Writer, lecturer, photographic researcher
Austin has been doing historical, photographic, and genealogical research for more than 10 years. She served a residency at the Newberry Library in 2005-2006 as an Arthur Weinberg Fellow and was a Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Fellow in both 2004 and 2006. More . . .
Kathleen Thompson
Writer, lecturer, researcher
Thompson has spent almost two decades doing historical research. She was a Huntington Fellow at the Huntington Library in 2007. More . . .
