How We Work

Ancestral Research Bureau will give careful attention to any research project you propose to us, will analyze the feasibility of the project, and provide you with feedback, including a research proposal, if the project appears feasible at the time you contact us.  We use the following guidelines in accepting a research proposal:

▪ Please contact us using our website contact form.

▪When contacting us, please explain your research need, providing as much detailed information as you have, as well as outlining your specific expectations.

▪ After receiving your request, we will respond to you within a week’s time, providing an analysis of your research project, and discussing the feasibility of our undertaking the project.

▪ The analysis of the project is a service we provide you at no cost.

▪ If we offer to undertake your project, we will provide the following:

            ▪▪ A general outline of the research we propose to do.

            ▪▪ An estimate of the time required to complete your project.

▪▪ A description of any specialized research needs (e.g., travel) your project may require.  

▪ Before beginning your project, we will secure your signed consent. 

▪▪ Before you consent, we will ask you to read our outline of proposed research carefully, verify that we have understanding your goals correctly, and make any changes that may be necessary in the project.

▪▪ If you agree to the proposed project and you sign your consent, we will ask that you advance Ancestral Research Bureau an amount equal to half of the full cost based on the estimated time to complete your project.

▪▪ We will not begin the project until we have received this retainer fee.

▪ As we work on your project, you will receive regular reports of our progress, including copies (and analysis) of any documents we have found.

▪ As we approach half of the estimated time for the project, we will notify you with an estimate of time remaining to complete the project. 

▪ At this point, we will request your signed consent to continue with the project.

▪ When we complete your project, if the time required to complete it is less than half of the time originally estimated, we will return to you any funds you have advanced us in excess of the time we have expended.

▪ In addition to the periodic reports we provide as we pursue your research, you will receive a final report.  As with the periodic reports, it will include a detailed accounting of research time used, of copying expenses, and of travel expenses.

A Word about Our Fees

Our fee-structure employs a sliding scale based on the type of project you envisage.  In general, there are two tiers to our research and fees:

▪ If you have contacted us to secure a single record or several records (e.g., birth or death certificates) in our home area of Arkansas, we charge a flat rate of $25 per hour.

 Because we live near the central records repositories in Arkansas, there are ordinarily no travel fees involved in research to secure a record or several records in our local area.

▪ The only additional cost involved in this type of research is the cost of copying or of securing a record such as a birth or death certificate.

▪ For more extensive research projects (e.g., proving a lineage several generations back, building a family history, translating or transcribing family documents), our fee is $50 per hour.

▪ If your project requires travel more extensive than travel in our local area, we will apprise you of this, secure your permission before we travel, and add the travel fees (approved by you in advance) to the proposed cost of our project.

We will not propose to undertake a project where our initial analysis indicates in advance that there is little or no hope of discovering information for you. 

However, if there is reasonable hope of discovering information and you agree to our initial proposal and terms, we will expect payment even when it is impossible to locate any information.  In such cases, we will notify you as soon as we have discovered that your project has met a stone wall—and this is almost always in the beginning of the research period.

We pledge to give you courteous, prompt, professional service of the highest caliber.  We have a long list of highly satisfied clients, some of whom have hired us to work for them on a multi-year basis, and who have engaged us for subsequent projects after seeing the quality of our work on their initial project.