Research service

Professional Research

Have your Scottish ancestors traced professionally.

There are many reasons why people find it necessary and useful to use a professional researcher. That researcher is in the country where the family came from and is therefore able to access the data sources available there, and use local knowledge to further the search.

Not knowing where or how to begin. A professional search can give you the start you need in order to go further. A professional search can find more information for you in a relatively short time, because the researcher knows where to look for the information you require which in itself will save time and costs.

It can be used as a gift for someone known to be interested in family history.

It might seem quite expensive to pay somebody by the hour to find your family for you. It is obviously less expensive than flying to Scotland from Australia, but it can also be much more cost effective for those living in Scotland themselves.

For example, in Scotland, a standard copy of birth certificate will cost £13 plus postage, from the register office. (You would have to know which office the birth was registered in). You would have to know almost as much information as the certificate would give and you cannot search for yourself.  Entrance to the General Records Office in Edinburgh is £17 for a one day search pass. You can search for yourself but have to know where to begin. If you are not familiar with the use of computers and filing systems it can be very daunting and confusing. It is easy to become very frustrated, annoyed and disappointed when leaving with nothing!

The fee for providing a search is £18 per hour. This covers the costs of providing a report on the people investigated which includes birth, marriage and death records and census information. The report will be clearly printed with the source of each record documented. Any other relevant sources will be checked. It will also include details of other information which might be available, (i.e. wills, newspaper articles etc).

You will have to supply your address and e-mail address and as many details of the person for whom you require a search. Also include as much of the following information as possible.

These details include:

	Names of any of the person's parents, brothers or sisters, spouse(s), children
	Dates or places of any of their births, baptisms, marriages, deaths or burials
	Their occupations or places of work
	Their religious denomination
	The schools, colleges or universities they attended
	Details of their military service, if any (e.g. rank, regiment, campaigns)
	Names of farms, villages or parishes (or house addresses in towns) where they lived
	Date, place & means of emigration from Scotland, where relevant
	The order in which names were given to the person's children or siblings (which  may help to predict their grandparents' names)
	Any children known or thought to have died in infancy

Any other information, however trivial it may seem, should also be included.

E-mail me with the relevant information and I will be able to tell you what, if any, information should be available and if a search would be viable.

CONTACT ME HERE

A search will be started as soon as payment is received. If the search fails to provide any information, the reasons will be given in a report of sources searched and half the search fee will be returned.

A four hour search should be considered for a 'From Scratch' search.

I cannot research for those people thought to be in England or Ireland. You would have to contact a researcher in those countries.

CONTACT ME HERE