The Empire Portfolio is ideal for anyone who has no, or very limited, information about their 19th and early 20th Century ancestors.
As the research results are handsomely bound in book form, the Empire Portfolio is also ideal to give to a relative as a present on a special occasion such as their 18th birthday, their wedding or their retirement.
Using whatever information you already have as the starting point, I follow one direct line of your family back to an ancestor born around the beginning of the 19th Century. Although my research will concentrate on one direct line of your family much information may also be discovered about other family members. All spouses will be included. Typically you will discover information about 14 direct ancestors and perhaps 30 or more other relatives.
Sources that I investigate include birth and marriage certificates (death certificates are not usually used in this type of research but can be included at extra cost), Census returns from 1841 to 1911 and, if those sources fail to yield results, baptism registers, trade directories, old newspapers and other documents.
The Empire Portfolio includes:
· A high quality gold blocked spring binder (worth nearly £20) to which you can easily add further pages in the future. All enclosed pages are printed on acid free archive quality paper guaranteed to last for 200 years.
· A report personally written by me in narrative style. It is not computer generated. To see an example please click HERE (opens as a Word Document).
· The report includes historical notes about what was happening in the United Kingdom and elsewhere at the time of significant family events and notes on the places where your ancestors lived.
· A printed family tree in traditional ‘drop chart’ form.
· Copies of each document used in the research (subject to very occasional copyright restrictions). Some organisations currently charge £19.99 for each birth or marriage certificate.
· Brief notes to explain the types of documents used.
· A CD containing 1) a copy of the report so you can print further copies, 2) a copy of the family tree which can be printed using Adobe Acrobat, 3) a GEDCOM file so that the family tree can be imported into any genealogy software. You can add to it in the future, or you could ask me to undertake further research, which can also be appended.
For a small extra charge illustrations can be added, such as photos from your family albums. These can be scanned and even retouched if necessary.
FEES
The standard fee for an Empire Portfolio, as described above, is £450.
Two ancestral lines can be included in the Empire Portfolio for £850.
Additional Portfolios containing the bound report, the tree and the CD may be had for £35 each if ordered at the same time.
I ask for half the fee in advance and the other half on completion of the work. Although the amounts above are fixed prices, I will nevertheless refund an appropriate proportion of an amount already paid, or reduce the second payment, if it proves impossible to trace your direct family line (or lines) back to around 1800.
If there are likely to be any additional costs, for example searching for ancestors born overseas, this will be discussed with you before the cost is incurred.
The fixed price includes everything listed above including all my expenses in obtaining and copying documents and a number of days of professional research and preparation.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?
An Empire Portfolio can usually be completed within 8 weeks. I will tell you as soon as possible if this target cannot be met. If you need a Portfolio quickly, for a last minute present for example, it can sometimes be completed in 2 weeks but this depends on other commitments.
WHAT DO I NEED TO SUPPLY?
The best starting points are copies of the birth or marriage certificates of your parents or grandparents, if you have them. Additional information helps too, whether certificates, other documents, last known addresses, or stories passed down in the family. The more information you can give me, the more time I shall have to concentrate on new areas of research. However, I can start with very little information if necessary.
GIFT CERTIFICATES
Gift Certificates make excellent presents for family members or friends. An ‘Empire Certificate’ can be used by the recipient to ‘buy’ an Empire Portfolio and offers them the opportunity to liaise with me direct about their existing family history information and about the contents of their Portfolio. Click HERE for further details.
