Our Services & Packages

How Working Together Begins

Most genealogy work isn't suited to click-and-buy ordering. Each project's right scope depends on the era, region, and specific question being researched — and the right package for your question is almost never visible on a menu without a conversation first.

For that reason, this page now has only one direct payment button: the $59.99 Premium Consultation Survey Research Report, which serves as the entry point for all larger engagements. Standard project deposits and balance dues are invoiced directly to you after we've scoped your project together during consultation.

The package descriptions below show what each level includes and how much it costs. If you already know the package you want, that's helpful information for our consultation. Please book a conversation first rather than ordering directly. Genealogy projects benefit from being scoped to the actual question, and a 30-minute call almost always lands the project in the right place.

What Can I Expect From a Typical Project?

It depends.

Results vary based on record availability, how searchable those records are, and how much of a paper trail your ancestors left. DNA can supplement or sometimes compensate for gaps in the documentary evidence.

Rough estimates by package:

3-hour mini-project: May connect one generation under good conditions. The primary purpose is to assess the scope of your research problem and develop a tailored plan.
10-hour Bronze: May connect two to three generations under ideal conditions. For complex problems, this may cover a thorough review of your prior research and a survey of what others have already attempted.
20-hour Silver: May connect four to five generations under the best circumstances. For difficult problems, even one solid generational link in 20 hours is a significant accomplishment.
40-hour Gold: Designed for substantial progress on multiple ancestral lines at once — for example, extending several lines back to the 1600s in a single engagement rather than splitting that work across separate Silver projects. May connect ten or more generations under ideal conditions on a single line. Some problems are complex enough that even 40 hours won't produce a conclusive answer.

Important caveats:

The further back in time, the harder and slower the work becomes. If you or others have already spent considerable effort on a brick wall, one session may not solve it—many complex problems require multiple rounds of research.

No ethical genealogist guarantees specific results. What I can promise is expert handling, research performed according to your goals, and honest assessment of what's achievable.

For more Frequently Asked Questions & Answers, click here: https://www.myfamilygen.com/FAQ

Premium Consultation Survey Research Report – $59.99

The $59.99 Premium Consultation Survey Research Report is the lowest-threshold way to begin working with the practice — and the entry point to every larger engagement.

What the $59.99 covers:

A written research proposal drafted specifically for your question — what records exist for your family's era and region, what's likely findable, what's not, and what a realistic project scope looks like. Preliminary review of any documents or family information you'd like to send me before I draft the proposal. Direct correspondence with me throughout — not a chatbot, not a junior researcher, not a template.

How the fee works:

If you proceed with a full project, the $59.99 fee rolls forward as part of your project deposit. You're not paying it twice.

If you decide the proposal isn't the right fit, the research roadmap is yours to keep — you can take it to another researcher or follow it yourself.

If you change your mind before I've started work, the fee is refundable — no paperwork, no questions asked.

What this button is not:

The Premium Consultation is not the same as the free 30-minute consultation also offered on this site. The free consultation is for prospects still figuring out whether professional research makes sense for their question. The Premium Consultation is for prospects who already know they want to engage and want a written research proposal as the first deliverable.

Why This Is the Only Instant Payment Button

Most of the work I do isn't suited to a click-and-buy transaction. Research projects vary in scope, era, region, and complexity — and the right package for your specific question almost never matches what you'd pick from a menu without a conversation first.

Every project above the Premium Consultation level is scoped, quoted, and invoiced after we've talked. You'll receive a written proposal and a standard invoice for the deposit; the balance is invoiced at project completion. No package above the Premium Consultation has an instant-payment button — that's intentional, not an oversight.

The package descriptions below outline what each level offers and how much it costs. The starting price after the Premium Consultation is $245.99 for the Mini Project; the highest price is $2,339.98 for a 40-hour Gold Plus project tackling multiple ancestral lines at once. Most single-line projects land between the Bronze 10-hour and Silver 20-hour tiers. The Gold tier is most often ordered by clients who want substantial progress on more than one line of interest at once — for example, extending several family lines back to the 1600s in a single engagement rather than splitting that work across multiple separate Silver projects.

If you already have a sense of which package fits your question, that's helpful — but the right next step is still a conversation. Book a free 30-minute consultation, or order the $59.99 Premium Consultation above for a written research proposal as the first deliverable.

Mini Project- $245.99

Mini Project engagements are scoped during consultation and invoiced after we've confirmed the scope together. To get started, book a free 30-minute consultation or order the $59.99 Premium Consultation above

Bronze 10 Hour Service Package Basic- $599.99

Bronze 10 Hour Service Package Plus- $774.99

Silver 20 Hour Service Package Basic- $919.99

Silver 20 Hour Service Package Plus- $1174.99

All the above engagements are also scoped during consultation and invoiced after we've confirmed the scope together. To get started, book a free 30-minute consultation or order the $59.99 Premium Consultation above.

Gold 40-Hour Service Packages

The Gold 40-hour package is the right choice when you want substantial progress on more than one ancestral line at once.

Most single-line research projects land between Bronze (10 hours) and Silver (20 hours). At 20 hours, a Silver engagement can realistically push one line back two to three centuries under good conditions — meaning if your confirmed starting generation is from the 20th century, we might reliably reach the early 1800s or late 1700s on that one line. Pushing multiple lines back that far in a single engagement requires Gold's runway.

The most common Gold use case is the client who wants several family lines extended back to the 1600s in one comprehensive engagement, rather than splitting that work across multiple separate Silver projects. The consolidated Gold engagement is more efficient than three sequential Silvers because the research infrastructure — database access, methodology setup, intake review, document procurement coordination — is paid for once rather than three times.

Other Gold-appropriate situations include genuinely complex single-line projects: pre-1850 US research in jurisdictions with destroyed or scattered records, pre-1800 international research, DNA triangulation projects, foreign-records work requiring in-country specialists, or multi-region research that spans several record landscapes.

Gold 40 Hour Service Package Basic — $1,839.98

For Gold-tier projects in US research post-1850 or international research post-1800 (or post-civil-registration, whichever is most recent).

Gold 40 Hour Service Package Plus — $2,339.98

For Gold-tier projects in US research pre-1850, international research pre-1800, or research in jurisdictions before official mandatory civil registration began. Gold engagements are scoped during consultation and invoiced after we've confirmed the scope together. Because Gold projects involve more moving parts than standard work, a full consultation is required before this tier is quoted. To get started, book a free 30-minute consultation or order the $59.99 Premium Consultation above.

Special Project Types

Some genealogy projects don't fit neatly into a standard research hour package. We scope each service individually after a consultation because each has its own variables—proof standards, third-party requirements, attorney involvement, or record volume—that we need to assess before we can provide an accurate quote. If you're considering one of these, the consultation call is where we figure out whether it's the right fit and what a realistic scope looks like.

Lineage Society Applications (DAR, SAR, Mayflower, and Others)

Proving descent for a hereditary society application is not casual genealogy. Every generation in your line must be documented with original records meeting the society's specific evidentiary standards — not assumed, not inferred from family tradition, and not supported by unsourced online trees. This work includes documentary research, packet assembly organized according to the society's formatting requirements, and completion of the application form. If your line has been previously accepted through another member's application, a supplemental application is considerably simpler. If you are establishing a new line from scratch, plan for at least 20 hours, and budget more if the line has documentary gaps. I work directly with your chapter registrar from the start, because what's published online is rarely the complete picture of what they actually require — getting their specific expectations in writing before research begins is the difference between a packet that gets approved and one that gets bounced back.

(Silver Plus tier minimum, per our Plus criteria — see the package selection reference page)

Family History Books and Narrative Projects

Producing a written family history — a personal narrative, a compiled lineage, a book-length project — requires a separate skill set and a different cost structure. I provide the research foundation and the narrative writing. Layout, design, and print coordination are referred to specialists who do that work professionally. Minimum engagement is $2,500, structured as a phased project so you can see results and approve direction before each subsequent phase begins. If your goal is something quicker and lighter, Ancestry's MyCanvas and similar services can produce a reasonable family book from an existing tree without the full custom narrative process.

Contact to discuss whether a custom narrative project or a lighter alternative is the better fit.

DNA Analysis and Unknown Parentage Research

DNA work falls into two categories.

1) Standard DNA analysis — interpreting your matches, identifying relationships, breaking through documentary brick walls using genetic evidence — fits within the regular research package framework at Plus tier rates.

2) Unknown parentage research — identifying a biological parent whose name isn't known, an unknown grandparent, or piecing together an ancestry where the documentary trail simply doesn't exist — is more time-intensive than people expect. Twenty hours is a realistic minimum for a first project, and most cases benefit from a second project of equal scope to follow up on what the first one surfaces. Before you commission this work, exhaust the free options: search angel volunteer organizations that specialize in exactly this kind of search and are worth contacting first. If you've worked with a search angel and they've taken you as far as they can, that's the moment professional research becomes the right next step.

Heir Search and Estate-Related Research

Identifying heirs for an estate, locating documentation for probate proceedings, or providing genealogical evidence for legal matters requires coordination with retained legal counsel. I do not take heir search projects without an attorney involved — not as a policy preference, but because the work needs to be scoped to specific legal requirements that vary by jurisdiction and proceeding, and only counsel can specify what those are. If you're working with a probate attorney and they've identified a need for genealogical research, have them contact me directly with the project's specifications. If you're handling an estate without counsel and believe genealogical research would help, the consultation conversation will cover whether that's actually the case and what the path forward looks like.

Contact for a consultation. If an attorney is involved, please have them reach out directly.

Citizenship by Descent and Dual Citizenship Documentation

Locating and documenting the records needed for a citizenship-by-descent application — Italian, Irish, Polish, German, or any other program — is genealogical work I'm equipped to handle. Determining whether those records will satisfy the program's legal requirements is not. Each country has its own rules around female-line transmission, naturalization cutoffs, legitimacy standards, and document formatting that change over time and depend on legal interpretation. The right structure is for you to retain an immigration attorney or citizenship law specialist who tells me exactly what records are needed and in what form, and I locate and document them to that specification. If you don't yet have a citizenship law specialist, I recommend working with one before commissioning the research, because finding the right records for the wrong requirements is an expensive way to learn that distinction.

Contact for a consultation. If you have a citizenship attorney working with you, please loop them in.

Coaching and Guided Research

For experienced hobbyists who want to do the research themselves but want professional guidance — review of work in progress, suggested directions, methodology refinement, help when you've hit a wall you can't see around — coaching is a paid service distinct from full research engagements. This isn't free mentoring, and it isn't a consultation. It's guidance built into your ongoing work, with periodic check-ins and a written assessment at the end of the engagement. It works best for clients who have the time and motivation to do the legwork themselves and need a professional's eye on strategy and quality, not someone to do the research for them.

Heritage Travel and Story Preservation

If you're planning a trip to ancestral homelands and want documented family information to anchor the experience — names of villages, parishes, and farms; the specific records that survive there; the right archives to visit; what to ask for and how — that's a defined project I take on. Same for clients who want family stories preserved in a documented form before older relatives are no longer available to interview. Both are scoped to the situation rather than priced as a fixed package.

Contact to discuss what you're trying to accomplish.

How These Projects Get Started

All special project types begin the same way: a free thirty-minute consultation call where we discuss what you're trying to accomplish, what's realistic, what scope makes sense, and whether I'm the right professional for the work. Pricing is established on the call, not before, because each of these project types has variables that can't be accurately priced from a written description alone. After the consultation, if we proceed, we'll send a service agreement and research authorization specific to your project. We'll begin work once we receive the deposit and the signed documents.

If you're not sure which category your situation falls into — or whether it falls into one at all — call anyway. Part of the consultation is figuring that out.

PROFESSIONAL & INSTITUTIONAL SERVICES

In addition to serving individual clients, I collaborate with professional genealogy teams, law firms, and institutions on projects requiring specialized research skills. Available services include:

Descendancy Research — Tracing lineages forward from historical subjects into the 20th and 21st centuries to identify living descendants or confirm the absence of surviving immediate family. This includes preparing formal documentation supporting conclusions drawn from the evidence.
DNA Casework — Designing testing strategies, identifying and recruiting living testing candidates, analyzing DNA matches, and building out unknown trees to establish common ancestry and solve complex research problems.
Forensic Genealogy & Heir Identification — Supporting legal proceedings, estate settlements, and repatriation efforts through rigorous documentary and genetic evidence analysis.
Repository & Institutional Research — Navigating offline collections including NARA-held court records, state and local archives, religious archives, historical societies, and business associations.
Outreach to Living Individuals — Making tactful, respectful contact with living persons identified through research, including cold outreach by phone and correspondence.

If you are a professional colleague, attorney, institution, or team lead looking to bring on a credentialed researcher for project-based work, please contact me directly to discuss scope and availability.

Rates for professional collaboration are negotiated based on project scope and complexity.

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