Where Would We Start ?

A project begins with a free consultation to determine exactly what it is you would like to accomplish with your research.  We exchange a variety of information and together, then come up with a plan that meets your needs and fits your budget.  A contract and reasonable rates will be made available, at your request during this preliminary period, but the actual research process won't begin until this contract is signed and returned with a retainer paid through this website.  

• do you have only one name to begin with, a family story, the names of your aunts and uncles?
• are you just beginning your genealogy, or looking for help with some branches that are a little more challenging than you expected? 
• You are trying to find the ancestor that settled on some bounty land in exchange for military service
• Will your project require a five hour research session, ten hours, thirty hours, or four weeks?
• Do you need a research plan designed, a proof argument, a family tree, a booklet for a family reunion?
• Having trouble with that Mayflower application, DAR or SAR application you started and set aside for later? 
• Would you like to locate only a certain generation of your family, or see if they show up in a specific area, or during a certain time frame? 
• Are you looking for lost connections to establish kinship for a probate or legal issue? 
• Do you use Ancestry.com,  Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic or Family Search, MyHeritage or Wiki-pages?  Do you prefer to work in hard-copy paper and note book format? 
• How do I tell a good 'member tree' from a questionable one? Can you fix my Ancestry.com tree?
• "We are a small historical society interested in a presentation of 'Genealogy for Beginners' at next month's meeting, do you offer this?"
• I would like to honor my Military Veteran Ancestor for their service.  Where do I start?
• I know where they were born and lived, but where are they buried?

A contract and reasonable rates will be made available at your request during this preliminary period, but the actual research process won't begin until this contract is signed and returned with a retainer paid through this website. 

... or you are just not sure how to start assembling your thoughts. Getting from a shoe box full of pictures, letters and family stories to and interesting family tree is not as difficult as you may think, just start with one small family - yours.  Record what you know in any manner you like.  Use the backs of family group sheets or a separate sheet of paper; work on a computer, by e-mail and/or word processing documents.

Family Group Sheets can help you organize your information and are useful to make notes on.  The more you can add the better, all the details count.  Fill them out to the best of your ability and as accurately as possible.  If you have some research done already, please include your sources.  Include every bit of information you may know about the person or persons being researched, listing one family group onto one family group sheet.  Identify the members you wish to be researched and list their parents, siblings and spouses including any birth, marriage, or death dates.  The location of these events are very important also, so include any family residences and their locations in  towns or cities, counties and states.  Adding physical descriptions such as hair and eye color, medical or physical limitations are important.  Injuries incrured during military service may help identify 'same-name' individuals, or siblings, separate Scr. from Jr., and so on. We can also transcribe and-or abstract those old letters, legal documents, historical deeds and scripts, archival microfilm, or calligraphies you have collected to reveal more details about your family and this hand-written snapshot in time.