Records Check
Before anyone travels or opens a book: do the registers for your village and your years still exist, and where are they?
Price
$140
Takes
up to two weeks
Pricing
Every price we have, on one page.
You will not find these figures on most sites in this trade, and that is the point. Here is what each piece of work costs, what you receive for it, and what happens if the archive or the cemetery has nothing for you.
The ladder, from smallest to largest
A Day in Your Village
A whole working day on the ground in your family's village, recorded so that you see everything that was seen.
Price
$290
Takes
one full day
A Day in the Archive
A working day in the reading room on your family's files — the pages photographed, the entries read.
Price
$290
Takes
one full day
If You Cannot Travel
The day in your village, done for you and brought back — for everyone who will never board that plane.
Price
$290 the day
Takes
one full day, then the film
Grave Care
An ocean away, a grave grows over in a decade. We keep it as if the family had never left.
Price
$240 per year
Takes
ongoing, yearly
The Journey Home
Where the rest of the ladder leads: you come, and stand in the village your family left. Built around one village and one family, not sold as a package.
Price
priced for your family
Takes
planned months ahead
Where the figures come from
Most of the work is priced by the day, because that is how it is actually done: a day in the reading room, a day in the village. $290 covers the road, the working day, the photographs and the written account. Archive fees — copying, per-page charges — are not ours and are not in it; if an archive charges anything, you hear the sum before anything is paid.
Larger research is several of those days, and its price is fixed in writing after the records check, when we know which books exist. You write to us first either way. We answer in writing within two business days, and about one case in ten we advise against ourselves, and charge nothing for saying so.
How payment works
- Before you pay
- A free written assessment, then an email naming exactly what will be done and what it costs. The work starts once the payment arrives.
- How
- The invoice comes by email, with the payment details and the scope of work on it. From the US it is an ordinary domestic bank transfer, not an international wire; from Europe, a SEPA transfer in euros. We cannot take cheques, money orders or Zelle.
- If nothing is found
- A day in your village: half comes back, and the photographs stay yours. A day in the archive: a full written account of everything checked. A records check: the answer, even when it is “nothing survives”.
It is worth asking that last question everywhere else you enquire.
If nothing is found
It depends on what you bought, and we say which before you pay. A day in your village is a search: if we find nothing of your family there, half of the $290 comes back to you, and the photographs and the report stay yours. A day in the archive is a working day in the reading room: you receive a full written account of what was checked and what it showed, whether or not your family is in it. A records check is an answer, and “the books did not survive” is an answer too — often the cheapest good one in a whole search.
See what a report looks like
A real report from two days in the archive, exactly as the client received it. Only the family's names, the client, house addresses and archive references are hidden.
What families ask about money
How are you different from the others who do this?
Four things, and you can check every one of them. First: our prices are published, down to what a day in the village or in the archive costs — most of this trade hides them behind “contact us”. Second: before you pay, you know what happens if nothing is found — on a day in your village, half comes back. Third: our safety protocol is published in full, including the regions we refuse to enter. Fourth: we turn down cases we believe are hopeless, at the free assessment, and charge nothing for saying so. We also work in six languages — Portuguese and Spanish included, which matters if your family went to Brazil or Argentina rather than Canada.
Why is most of the work priced by the day?
Because that is how it is actually done. A day in the reading room and a day in the village cost the same road and the same working day whether the register holds three entries or thirty, so a fixed price for the day is the honest one. Larger research is several such days, and its price is fixed in writing after a $140 records check, once it is known which books exist. Archive copying fees are not ours; if an archive charges anything, you hear the sum before anything is paid.
Roughly what should I expect a journey to cost?
We do not publish one figure, because it would be wrong for most families: it depends on how many of you travel, for how many days, how far apart the villages are and which hotels you choose. The price is set in writing once the research is done and the days are planned, with each part priced openly. Most families start much smaller — a records check or a day in the village — which is also how the journey itself is prepared.
When do I pay?
Once you have agreed in writing what will be done. Each piece of work is paid in full when you commission it, and it starts as soon as the payment arrives — a day in the village or in the archive has to be booked, and files ordered, in advance. What protects you is stated before you pay: on a day in your village, if nothing of your family is found, half the fee comes back.
Who am I actually paying? Is this even a real business?
Before any money moves, you receive an email naming exactly what will be done, and the invoice with the payment details and the scope of work on it. From the US the payment is an ordinary domestic bank transfer to US account details, not an international wire; from Europe, a SEPA transfer in euros. We cannot accept cheques, money orders or Zelle. Everything about the founder is checkable in public records — the About page lists where.
Start with a request. It costs nothing.
You write us the family name and whatever you know. We write back honestly: what can be found, what cannot, and what it would cost in your case. No payment, no obligation.