Below you'll find a list of some of the most frequent
questions we've been asked regarding ProGenealogists in-depth research
projects. If you have a question that is not listed here, please contact
us.
In-depth research can be partially defined as
"any research goal that will take a skilled professional
genealogist more than 4 hours to resolve." Most immigration,
ancestry, and problem solving research goals fall under this
category of in-depth research. Often what might appear to be a
simple request for information can actually involve hours of
research and this depends upon the surname, geographic region and
time period. If you're not sure if your project requires in-depth
research, or, you would like to have an idea about how long your
research goal might take to research, ask us for an
estimate. [top]
We can empathize with those of you who are seeking
a living family member, or living biological relatives for adoptees.
Unfortunately, in most cases we do not have access to the
contemporary records needed to assist you. Post 1940 records are not
readily available to us. Furthermore, privacy laws restrict our
access to many other modern records. So, for this reason, we would
like to suggest that if you need post 1940 research on living
individuals that you consider hiring a licensed private investigator
whose skills and access to contemporary records better match your
research needs. If they cannot help you directly, we know that they
will offer you alternatives. [top]
The payment pages where you send your credit card
information to us are secure. For this financial portion of your
order, our company web site uses 128-bit Secure Socket Layer
technology; a data scrambling process that prevents anyone from
seeing data as it is being sent to or from our site. What this means
is that any information you send to us from one of our secure pages
is protected by encryption. It's easy to tell when you are looking
at and working with a secure server page because there will be a
little lock or key at the bottom of your browser that changes color
or is no longer broken, depending upon whichever browser you are
using. We will notify you immediately if there is any problem with
your order. No matter if you telephone, fax or place your orders
online, we want you to have a great experience working with our
professional genealogist staff. [top]
All orders are sent via U.S. Postal Service mail.
In-depth projects are sent priority mail. Detailed fees information,
including postage fees can be found on our fees
page for in-depth research. [top]
ProGenealogists consists of a select group of
skilled and experienced genealogists. In most all cases (about 90%
of the time), we are the ones directly responsible for conducting
the actual research on projects for you in original records sources.
Your research is placed on our docket as soon as the retainer is
received and we address research projects in the order they were
received. As professional genealogists we constantly balance a fine
line between speed of output and quality of output and we always
prefer to err toward the latter. We have found that most all our
clients would rather wait to have an experienced genealogist
complete their research. We realize that your deposit is an
investment. In specifying a broad range of completion time (about
6-12 weeks) we are allowed time to gather any and all correspondence
that will be necessary in order to most effectively address your
research goals. [top]
We realize how exciting genealogy research can be
for a family when they are awaiting new discoveries about their
ancestry. We strive hard to finish work in the time table we've
mentioned above. We take great joy in telling you of super new finds
and we understand the importance of telling you immediately if there
are problems with the progress of the research. However, reporting
each week's findings is just not a cost effective strategy for your
research investment. E-mail requests for periodic updates will be
happily returned especially if the project is extending past our
usual deadline, but the time spent writing e-mail to report these
findings will be deducted from your research deposit and will thus
reduce the amount of funds we have left to actually conduct original
records research for you. Feel free to contact us, but know ahead of
time that frequent or extensive telephone or e-mail updates will be
billed to your account. [top]
First of all, we work hard to reach the research
goals you've set for you research project in an efficient and
to-the-point manner. We work with all types of resources, from dusty
old actual court records and original tax books, to microfilmed
records in various non-English languages to barely legible
immigration records. We also are keen and adept at new technologies
and know how to effectively use online records and CD indexes. One
of our staff, Natalie Cottrill, wrote an article published online
that touches on the various ins and outs of genealogy research and
how genealogists work with the clients and their client's family
histories. If you have the time to read
through the article, you might find it to be a more detailed
answer to this question. [top]
We're sure that by now you've seen our rates and
compared them with other full-service companies. You've probably
noted that we have a super team of genealogists and that our rates
are better than the others. However, we understand that these bits
of information don't fully answer your question. Insofar as what the
total cost for your project might be ... the answer to this question
really depends upon what you want to have done. Do you want us to
just research one individual? or one family? or one ancestral line
... or, do you want to have extensive multigenerational research
done? or a family history book written? The final cost depends upon
the number of hours it takes to reach your research goal. The wide
range of goals listed above can take anywhere from 10 to 2000 or
more hours. It is important to keep in mind that genealogy research
is an ongoing process and that your family history research will
never really be "done." You will always have another
generation to add, or another record to obtain. So, when asking
for an estimate, make sure that you list at least one very
specific goal and a few other less specific ones. These will help us
put your research needs in proper perspective. While you're
considering all this, realize that no genealogist has a crystal ball
that might help to predict how long or how much money it will take
to fulfill your research goal. For those of you who would like to
have some VERY approximate figures to consider: it can take about
2-7 hours to document and write a cited report for a post 1850 U.S.
married couple; about 4-9 hours to do the same for a 1750-1849 U.S.
married couple; and for pre-1750 U.S. research, it can take as much
as 12-20 hours per married couple. If the surnames are common, or
they lived where there were few records, or where records have been
destroyed, then it may take longer. The actual time might be less or
more, depending upon a thousand variables. The best we can do is
promise to do an excellent job and work hard to keep costs and fees
to a minimum. We want to keep our clients. By offering great
research in return for the client's investment, we keep them and
keep them satisfied, too. [top]
