Genealogy is a never-ending, lifelong quest. How many generations can you discover before the records trail ends? When will you reach your personal limit of time or effort? My approach to genealogy is to take it in six-generation segments.

When hiring a genealogist to assist with your research, it is best to set a focused goal. Since genealogy is an endless quest, having a professional reconstruct your entire knowable lineage can become very expensive and can take many months (or years). Assisted research projects based on a finite question makes sense for a budget.

Questions like the following will help researchers stay on point:

• Who were my maternal great-grandparents?
• When did my grandfather immigrate from Germany?
• How can I get my grand uncle’s military records?
• I want to prove my connection to the original Californians.
• Help me prove the family lore of…

I would love to assist you to discover the answers to your focused questions. We will start with an interview to share with me everything you know, everywhere you’ve looked at, every record you’ve collected. It is important to share everything you know to avoid duplication of efforts. Together, we will derive a focused research plan.

My fee is $50 an hour.  It is not always possible to predict the number of hours required to complete a project. An initial contract of four hours may answer the question or be sufficient for a good start. If the results I’ve produced after four hours look promising, then we can decide to keep researching, with a new focused plan. Hourly fees are billed in increments of 30 minutes.  Expenses for travel, records requests, and other fees are not included in the hourly fee and will be negotiated in advance.

You will receive a written Research Report compiling all my findings and conclusions, along with all relevant supporting documentation in an electronic format. Negative or inconclusive results will also be included. The research report is copyright of Six Generation, but facts within the report can be freely used to supplement your family history records. You will also receive an itemized invoice for services with expense receipts.

I follow the Association of Professional Genealogist ethical standards.