I provide both a research and a transcription service 

I visit New Register House, Edinburgh, the National Archives of Scotland and the Glasgow City Archives/Mitchell Library in Scotland   

Results are sent by email, usually within 24 - 48 hours of my return. 

AND 

The National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) the London Metropolitan Archives, the Guildhall Library, The British Library and their newspaper library at Colindale, The Principal Probate Registry, and the Society of Genealogists in London.

The records at these archives are usually photocopiable and will be sent to you in the post on my return home. 

I am also willing to travel to other archives both in Scotland and England as long as my expenses can be covered  

Click on the hyperlink to take you to the appropriate section

Scottish Research                                              

Transcription of Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates 

Paper Copies of Digitised Images 

Transcriptions from Old Parish Records 

Other Research Facilities 

Searching for Living Relatives

Transcriptions from Census Data 

Transcriptions from Testaments, Inventories, Sasines and Kirk Sessions

(Not in Latin or Scots Secretary Hand) 

Glasgow City Archives 

English Research     

The National Archives (Formerly the Public Record Office) 

London Metropolitan Archives and the Guildhall Library 

Family Records Centre 

The British Library

The Society of Genealogists

Specialist Research

Methods of Payment 

Scottish Research

Services and Costs

Birth, Death and Marriage Certificate Transcription

If you know the exact GRO(S) reference (year, registration district number, and entry number)

For example  1867    603      25

Birth and Death Certificates                       £3                    per certificate

Marriage Certificates                                   £3.50               per certificate    

These transcriptions available from 1907 – 2006 for births; 1927 – 2006 for marriages; 1957 – 2006 for deaths               

Before this time digitised images of certificates are available from 1855 onwards. I can collect copies of these and scan and send them to you by email.  

Cost of Scanned images                                                     £1                    per certificate           

If you have used the LDS Church’s films for example the General Indexes to the Civil Records (after 1855) at www.ktb.net/~dwills/scotref/13302-bmdtables.htm you will need to find out the number of the registration district as these films only give parish names not numbers.

A list of these is available at www.ktb.net/~dwills/scotref/13310-parishlist.htm 

If you do not have access to exact references

If you can provide name(s), a date and a place and some qualifying information, for example the names of parents, the cost would be £4 for birth and death certificates and £4.50 for marriage certificates. (As long as it’s not John Smith et al!) 

Back to Top

Paper Copies of Digitised Images

As digitised images are becoming more widely available I would like to offer you the opportunity to purchase copies of these for the cost of £1 per image. These are available for birth certificates from 1855 – 1903, marriage certificates from 1855 – 1929 and death certificates from 1855 – 1953. I can either send these to you as a scanned attachment to an email or if you prefer I can post them, however the cost of postage will have to be added. A reference number will be needed. 

If you do not know the reference number, but can provide qualifying information the cost will be £2 per image. 

Not wishing to sound patronising, but if you are not used to reading from certificates, you would probably be best asking for a transcription, or if you want the certificate, asking for a transcription as well, which would cost a further £2 or £2.50 that is, the usual transcription fee.

Back to Top

Old Parish Records

These have now been digitised and can be scanned an emailed to you

Cost:   £1 per image

Please note Old Parish Records were only as good as the person who kept them. They very rarely include as much information as does a certificate and death information in particular is scarce

Death information in particular is scarce and not indexed, therefore search time has to be allowed for. These have not yet been digitised. They are still on microfilm at present.

Back to Top

Look ups in Civil Registration    (Births, Deaths and Marriages 1855-1965 )

If you have a difficult name to search, but can furnish me with additional qualifying information, for example the names of parents for a birth certificate or the name of a spouse on a death certificate, I will look up each certificate of that name for the cost of 50p per certificate viewed, plus the final £2 or £2.50 transcription fee. If there are likely to be many names to research, then the best plan is to pay for the research time at £6 per 15 minutes. 

Please note that this service is NOT available for research in the Old Parish Records.

Back to Top 

Other Research Facilities

Cross Check on Female Deaths

This is a facility that allows you to look for the maiden and married name at the same time.

Available only during the years of Civil Registration (1855 or later)

There is no alternative spelling facility available with this, so if a name can be spelled a variety of ways, each spelling has to be checked separately. 

Cross Check on Bride and Groom Names for Marriages

This facility allows you to look for both names at the same time for a marriage. It can be used with or without Christian names. Available only during the years of Civil Registration (1855 or later) There is no alternative spelling facility available with this, so if a name can be spelled a variety of ways, each spelling has to be checked separately. Unfortunately, if the bride and groom have the same surname, this facility is not available either. 

Cross Check on deaths using an age parameter

This facility allows you to put in an approximate age at a particular year so that you narrow down the possible certificates to look through.

Available 1855-1858 and 1870 to 2007

Alternative spelling is available. 

Please be aware that there are no Certificates prior to 1855 and that Old Parish Records were only as good as the person who kept them. They very rarely include as much information as does a certificate and death information in particular is scarce. 

Monumental Inscriptions

New Register House holds a collection of these from various areas of Scotland and I am happy to look through these and transcribe details. 

Costs for all of the above:

Minimum:     £6 for a quarter of an hour search plus the transcription charge if found 

Back to Top 

Research Fees 

For Birth, Death or Marriage certificates within Civil Registration (1855 onwards) or Old Parish Records prior to 1855

Cost    £24 per hour [with a minimum of 15 minutes (£6)]

Remember the more information that you can give me the quicker the search will be.  The price for each certificate or record will be quoted to you when you make your request.

Family Tree Research 

Although it is more interesting to put together and complete research yourself, not all of us have the time or facilities for this. Please contact me if you would like me to do all of the research for you. The final result will be a Family Tree Maker Book. 

Back to Top

Censuses

1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891 and 1901 censuses

These are available at New Register House and can prove invaluable links. There are a limited number of either Street Indexes or Names Indexes for these censuses. Please ask for a copy of the Census Indexes Document, so that you can see whether the census information you require has been indexed.

Cost          £2 to look up each name/street name in the index

                  £4 for the transcription of the census entry/address     

(If you already have the index number the cost is only £4 per entry) 

If you require a census ‘trawl’ if the area you are interested in has not been indexed the search time fee remains at £24 an hour, with a minimum charge of £6 for quarter of an hour’s search time. (Please be aware that some searches may take longer than this) I can also trawl through census indexes looking for your families’ names. 

1881

I have a copy of this widely available census on CD Rom and am willing to do look ups for free, for those people who have requested other searches.  

1871, 1891 and 1901          

These censuses are available as digitised images. If you know the name, and place and/or age of the person(s) concerned

Cost £3 per family group 

If you do not know this information, the cost will be the usual research fee of £24 per hour, with the minimum fee of £6 for a search of 15 minutes.

Searching for Living Relatives

If you or your ancestors moved away from Scotland, I am happy to trace to see whether there are any relatives still living in Scotland now. 

Cost £24 per hour

Back to Top 

National Archives of Scotland

(Formerly the Scottish Records Office) 

This is where Testaments, Inventories, Sasines and Kirk Sessions amongst others are stored. These can be invaluable research tools that can add ‘meat to the bones’ of research and confirm links between ancestors. 

Testaments

The Scottish Archive Network (SCAN www.scan.org.uk) launched a website, Scottish Documents, where an index of all Testaments (Wills) and Inventories made from 1500 to 1901 can be viewed. This has now moved to the Scotland’s People site at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk I would ask you to check with this index if your ancestor died within this period and if later than 1875 contact the NAS at enquiries@nas.gov.uk to see if there is a document available. If it is they may either be able to photocopy it for you or if it is not in a good enough condition for this they will send you the reference number so that I can access it in order to transcribe it for you. 

Kirk Sessions

These can sometimes find that missing or ‘naughty’ ancestor for you. For example an illegitimate child may not have been baptised, and the parent(s) may have had to go before the Kirk to be rebuked. Not every book for every area is available, so please check with NAS first.  (You can check using their online catalogue at http://212.140.253.244/NAS/DServe.exe?dsqApp=Site20&dsqCmd=Index.tcl using the reference CH2 for Church of Scotland and CH3 for Free Church.) 

Sasines

These ‘transfers of property and money’ can sometimes prove the ‘missing link’ between ancestors. They are also invaluable for doing research on your house or other properties. The abridgements from these have now all been digitised, making research in them much quicker.  

Cost for research and transcription         £20 an hour 

There are lots of other interesting documents that are available at the National Archives of Scotland. It’s amazing what you can turn up by just putting your name into their catalogue search engine. 

If you are not sure what any of these documents contain, please visit the NAS website at http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/default.asp

These indispensable guides are full of useful information as to what is available 

Please note that some documents need to be ordered in well in advance. 

Back to Top

Glasgow City Archives and The Mitchell Library

These hold the records of the former Glasgow Corporation and most of those for the county councils and parish authorities within the former Strathclyde Region, except for Argyllshire and Ayrshire. The records of various families and estates in the Glasgow area are held.

Those that may be of particular interest include: 

The records of the Glasgow incorporation of trades, including membership lists 

Poor law records, including detailed applications for poor relief to the parishes of Glasgow from 1851, Barony from 1861 and Govan from 1876, and a number of other parishes from various dates until 1948 

Burgess roll for Glasgow 

Records of hundreds of schools, often including admission registers 

Estate records with information about tenants  

Registers of some local government employees, notably the police 

There is a large collection of newspapers and periodicals, many of which contain obituaries and death notices. 

The records are held of twenty Glasgow cemeteries covering the period from the 18^th century to the 1950s, as well as lair plans and registers of burials in intra-mural burial grounds, 1870-1950. 

In order to ascertain whether the information you require is available, I would recommend that you email them at archives@cls.glasgow.gov.uk  

I have produced a document which gives further details of what is available at this repository. 

Costs for researching here are £24 an hour plus any photocopying and postage charges

Back to Top                                                                       

English Research

Services and Costs 

The system for researching certificates in England is far more complicated and therefore more expensive, as you cannot view certificates in advance, but have to buy each one. However, there is a system in place, that if you have several possibilities, you can add a reference check and incorrect certificates will not be issued to you, therefore you do not pay the full fee.

I will look through the GRO indexes for references to birth, marriage and death certificates from 1837 at my local archives and then order certificates for you. 

If you live an impossible distance from an LDS Church Family History Centre, I will order in films of censuses and Old Parish Records and research through these for you. 

My local archives are in Lincoln and have a great deal of information of interest to genealogists interested in the Lincolnshire area and I am always happy to research for you here. 

Research cost is £20 an hour 

Certificate Ordering Service

As long as you know the reference you can now order certificates on line from all countries at

http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/  

You may be able to find the reference of the certificate you require on line at

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl otherwise you will need to have either found this in the GRO indexes. I can search these on your behalf.

Back to Top 

Censuses 

I have access to the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901  census for the whole of England, Wales, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and some areas of the 1871 and 1901 censuses.

The National Archives (Formerly the Public Record Office)

I am willing to make visits here on the basis of demand. There is a wealth of material available here, the references for most of which can be looked up in their on line catalogue which can be seen at at http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/  

There are also various research guides at

http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/researchguidesindex.asp

If you do not have time to search the catalogue  I am happy to do this for you. as it can be quite difficult to understand.

Please remember that many documents, , particularly those of First World War Soldiers , (which were burned during bombing raids in World War 2.) are not always accessible. So even if I cannot find the actual record, research time still has to be paid for. 

The great majority of documents can be photocopied, or I can make copies with a digital camera. 

Costs are £24 an hour plus photocopying and postage charges

Back to Top

London Metropolitan Archives and the Guildhall Library

If you have relatives from London, there is a wealth of information held at these repositories in the centre of London.  They have websites at  http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/leisure_heritage/libraries_archives_museums_galleries/lma/ 

And 

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/leisure_heritage/libraries_archives_museums_galleries/city_london_libraries/guildhall_lib.htm  

with a searchable database of their holdings. Of most interest to genealogists are all the Old Parish Records for London, Associations of London, Court Records, Health Authorities and Hospital Records, Records from Poorhouses and School Records. 

Costs are £20 an hour plus photocopying and postage charges.

Family Records Centre 

I am happy to research the indexes of Army Births and Baptisms, Consular Returns and Adoptions here.  

Censuses for all of England and Wales are held here, many of which have indexes to speed up research.  

There is an enormous database of trade directories of the whole of the UK available for research from approximately the 1830s to the 1930s 

The address of their site is http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/  

Costs are £20 an hour 

The British Library

This library holds a tremendous amount of genealogically interesting material. Of particular interest to genealogists are the baptism, marriage and death certificates of the India Office and information about officers in the Indian Army. 

Information is catalogued at the A2A site at http://www.a2a.org.uk/search/index.asp  using British Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections in the Location of Archives section. 

http://www.bl.uk/collections/orientaloffice.html tells you about the collections in general. 

http://www.bl.uk/collections/oiocfamilyhistory/familyeccles.html tells you about the births marriages and deaths 

There is searchable online catalogue at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/

Costs are £20 an hour

The Society of Genealogists

I am a member of this organisation, and therefore have all the records in their library available for me to research.

Their website is at http://www.sog.org.uk/

They have a huge collection of Old Parish Records available to research. There is an online catalogue available at http://www.sog.org.uk/prc/index.html  

Costs are £20 an hour

Specialised Research 

Ancestral Visa

Want to come and work in the UK?

Do you need research for an Ancestral Visa?

There is more information on this at http://www.accommodationlondon.net/oldsite/newsite/jobs/ancestralvisas.html

I can do the research for and get the necessary certificates for you.

Cost £20 an hour plus the costs of certificates

Probate Research

Has someone in your family died intestate? Do you need to search to see whether there are other living members of the family?

I can do the research for and get the necessary certificates for you.

Cost £20 an hour plus the costs of certificates

Lincolnshire Research

I am happy to research at my local archives,  where there is a huge amount of data on Lincolnshire, including areas which are now part of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, formerly Humberside.

They have a website at http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/index.asp?catId=6173

Many of Lincolnshire’s records are also catalogued at the Access 2 Archives site http://www.a2a.org.uk/search/index.asp  using Lincolnshire Archives in the Location of Archives section.

Methods of Payment

Payment may be made by personal cheque in GB pounds, made payable to Helen Curtis or  Genealogical Services and sent to my home address, which I would send you should you decide to use my service.  

For those without access to a sterling account:

I have a PayPal account which allows you to pay me with a credit or debit card, using my email address of Helen@genealogicalservices.co.uk If you are interested in this method please see their website at www.paypal.com