How much will it cost and how long will it take?

You will be charged for the actual time spent, plus out-of-pocket costs such as photocopies, postage, document retrieval, and pay-per-view websites, which are billed at cost. Travel time is billed at the regular hourly rate.

Client projects are usually divided into phases of ten to twenty hours. When we agree on the goals of the research, you authorize the number of hours for the first research phase, at which point I will schedule your project.

Because of the nature of most genealogical research, an exact or fixed budget is difficult to calculate. Records may or may not contain the information we are looking for. Resources may or may not exist. Lack of indexes, record legibility, format, and conditions of access, can also influence the amount of time needed to access certain records. In addition, complex research problems require more time for analysis and — when necessary — conflict resolution.