Genealogy

Heuristics Ltd specialises in helping you to tell the living story behind those names and dates on your family tree. We offer you the opportunity to discover more about your family background, even if you cannot visit the UK in person.

We have extensive research experience in the major UK archives and repositories, combined with many years’ professional writing experience.

How can we help you?

Whether you want a detailed investigation or an errand running, we can find things on your behalf – being on the ground we can pick up more than can be found through just the standard record searches. For example:

• Just starting out? – If you’re new to UK genealogy, we’ll help you define your objectives and tell you what we can do for you.
• Hitting a brick wall? – If your quest has run into the sands, we can try new avenues of enquiry.
• Can’t find somewhere? – We can track down locations that don’t show up on modern maps.
• Want some detail? – We can investigate those personal details and background to an ancestor’s way of life.

On the scene

Site visits provide the opportunity to pick up local histories and visit locations significant to members of your family, such as the house where they were born, the school they attended, the church where they were married, the village where the family lived, or their gravestones.

• Planning a trip? – If you are planning to travel to the UK, we can help you fill in the background details so you can plan your visit effectively.
• Out of reach? – If you can’t get here in person, we can do the research and visit the original ancestral locations on your behalf.
• Want a picture? – We can provide photographic prints or digital images of local scenes or buildings.

Telling the story

We can help you present your family history in a way that is most useful and meaningful to you and generations to come.

• Record keeping– We can produce computer files in your required format, e.g. GEDCOM, Family TreeMaker, Master Genealogist.
• Supporting evidence – We can supply original certificates of civil registration records; obtain copies of original parish register entries, wills and inventories, maps, service records, passenger lists, or old illustrations; provide photographs; and similar evidence.
• Biography – We can tell the story of an individual or part of the family as a report or narrative. We can supply a printout, and/or an electronic file in PC format for you to keep, e.g. Word, RTF, PDF, or HTML.

A tailored service

Heuristics Ltd provides an individual, personal service. We carry out only the work you have requested and pursue only those lines of enquiry you have agreed to within the budget you have set. We let you know when milestones have been reached and maintain a dialogue with you, so you can take advantage of new avenues of exploration.

When you contact us with your family history quest:

• We analyse the information you give us to ascertain the best approaches to take, then draw up a proposal offering a variety of services, from which you can choose one or more in any combination.
• Alternatively, you can commission us to carry out specific research on your behalf. We provide you with an estimate for the work you have requested.
• Once you have confirmed the work required, we keep you informed on progress and make further suggestions if there are new leads to follow.

What you can find here

These pages include some stories from our own family tree – we’ve followed some of these ancestors to all sorts of interesting places in the UK, as well as the US and Australia. (If you are researching your family history, you may also find items of interest on our History pages, such as the name indexes.)

Note: These sample stories are taken from our own families. We do not use clients’ family details for illustration. If you are researching any of these families, we hope you find the information useful. Feel free to link to any of these family stories, but please do not reproduce any of them without permission.

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