Research services
Family histories, built to be checked
Most family trees are copied from other family trees. Ours are built from the records themselves: every name, date and place marked with where it came from, every gap shown honestly, and every family story kept exactly as it was told, beside the evidence that tests it.
What we make
Looking down
A family register
Every descendant of one couple, generation by generation, each person given a number, so that a reader can follow any branch from the first settlers to the present day. The form genealogists have trusted for 150 years.
Looking back
An ancestral monograph
Your ancestors, back as far as the records honestly go, on a single chart. Where a line stops, it says whose parents are wanting, so you can see at a glance what is known, what is not, and where to look next.
The whole story
A family history
Every line written up as a story, with the evidence beneath it: maps, records, a list of every source, an index of names and places, and the open questions set out for the next person to take up.
A specimen monograph
Here is how an ancestral monograph works, using an invented family. Tap anyone to see what we know about them, and how we know it.
Specimen. The names are invented; the method is real.
Tap a name in the chart.
- “Clara ?” A question mark means the marriage is recorded but her own surname is not. Women are usually recorded under their husbands’ names, which is not the same as being born with them.
- “Wanting” An empty box beside a known person is a real gap: someone we could find tomorrow. The boxes beyond the edge of the chart, behind Clara’s missing parents, are not gaps at all. There is nothing to look for there until her parents are found.
- The warning sign. When two records cannot both be true, the chart flags the joint and leaves it in. Never solve a problem by deleting the evidence.
How a register reads
1. AUGUST¹ BRANDT was born about 1862 Inference and died in 1931 Document. He married WILHELMINA KRAUSE, born in 1866 Document.
Children of August and Wilhelmina:
+ 2i.OTTO², born 1890; married CLARA ?
ii.Emma, born 1893; died 1894, aged one.
The small raised number is the generation. The plus sign means Otto’s own family is carried forward under his number, 2, so a reader can follow his line on down without losing the thread. (The same invented family as the chart above.)
Lessons from our own desk
Every one learned the hard way, on a family history built at this desk.
- A woman dies under her married name. For years a death certificate went unfound because everyone searched for her under her maiden name. It was filed under her husband’s.
- Search the unusual name. A rare surname finds the family and almost nobody else. A common one needs a place and a date beside it, or it finds thousands.
- A strong lead in the right county is still not a parent. A well-documented man of the right name, in the right place, at the right time, turned out to be no relation at all. The answer was in a different family.
- An abstract is not a record. A published summary of a colonial will gave two witnesses’ names and a probate date. The court’s own record disagreed on both.
- “About” must stay “about.” A birth year worked out from an age at death was printed beside real dates, and soon looked like one. Estimates are marked as estimates, always.
- The best finds are in free books nobody opened. Lines written off as dead ends turned out to be answered in county histories and family genealogies that had been free online for years. Dead ends don’t get searched.
Starting your family’s history
- Tell us who. One couple to work down from, or one person to work back from. Names, places, rough dates.
- Send what the family has. Bible pages, letters, photographs, obituaries, old trees. We read every one, and we keep every family story exactly as it was told.
- Agree on the shape. A register, a monograph, a full history, or a single line to begin with.
- We build it from the records. Certificates, censuses, deeds, wills, church books, newspapers and county histories.
- You get a book you can trust. Every statement marked, every source listed, every gap honest, ready to print, share and add to.
Tell us about your family
Fill in what you can. This builds a tidy message for you to send us by email or Facebook Messenger. Nothing is sent by this page; your draft stays in your own browser.