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Update regarding our Genealogy Research Services valid from March 18, 2024 until further notice:
Due to the heavy workload associated with providing our Tour Services we decided to introduce the following rules:
- If you are our tour services client and you need or wish to have a research work done before visiting your ancestors’ places then you will be served first, as a priority customer.
- If you you are our returning customer, either of our tour or research services, then you research will also have higher priority.
- If you are our new customer then we will ask you to wait till the tour season ends for us to have more resources to focus on your research.
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As some of you may be well aware, genealogy research is often an extensive and time-consuming endeavor. Many of you have been doing this for years and you know there is still more to discover. You have been trying to move forward but you came across a barrier like a foreign language or you hit some other “brick wall” which you are stuck on for a long time. Or you might be just starting. You are aware that your forefathers emigrated from somewhere in central Europe but know very little about your ancestry and wondering where to begin.
Based on more than a decade of individual and team experience of performing thousands of genealogy projects we are here to assist in your family discovery journey. We can give you a head start or we can try to help you in overcoming the obstacles you have encountered.
Our team consists of experienced professional genealogy researchers, guides and research managers. We are a strong team bonded by years of common experience. We are based in central and eastern Europe, we do research in the land and among people which we have known since childhood. We are practitioners and we are insiders. And we can provide much more than basic search in vital records. One of the examples is variety of pre-partition sources for peasant and townspeople we named broadly “Land Records”. See the places covered in the Land Records database.
For those, who would like to see their ancestor’s land but from various reasons are not able to visit Poland, we offer Genealogy Virtual Tours. Our best genealogist will visit every village connected to your family history and collect all the remaining signs that your ancestors were there.
How it works
- Contact us to explain your needs. Fill out the Genealogy Research Request form (This form is inactive until further notice. If you are our returning customer or a customer of our Genealogy Tour, please contact us by email: [email protected]. See the announcement at the top of this page). Be also prepared to share files that may be helpful in further research or add links, like family trees with online access.
- We will contact you within 7 days. It is free of charge up to this stage. In the email, we may question to verify and learn more about your ancestry and research goals. When we have what we need you will receive offer with details about the possible direction and scope of the research including its cost. We will be waiting for your decision for 30 days.
- After receiving the payment we will start the research. It may take a while, however, you will be informed about the whole process on a regular basis. After the research, you will receive a full report containing a list of discovered ancestors (cousins), photographs of documents (if there is no restriction on the archives side), and other important details. We will also inform you if there is a possibility of the continuation of the research. If you had any specific wishes like adding a historical background of the place of your ancestors, including all the found details in your family tree or taking photographs and videos of your family land, just let us know in the request form or in your email. Here you will find an example of a Research Report enriched with historical background.
What we offer
Analysis of your documents. We check what you discovered so far, analyse your research goals, and inform you about the possibility of conducting a project for you. This stage is free of charge.
Basic Research. It contains 10 hours of genealogists’ work. Depending on the availability of sources it may provide more documents as well as some historical background. This stage is completed with a Research Report.
Standard Research. This option contains 20 hours of genealogists’ work. Again, the results of the research will be specified in the Research Report.
The price of the Basic and Standard options, in addition to the time of work of genealogists, may include cost of getting the records and travel to archives. You will know the total cost before you place an order for research. The minimum entry cost of the Basic Research stage is the equivalent of $800 US dollars paid in Polish zlotys PLN. (You can check the current exchange rate here: https://www.google.com/search?q=usd+pln) .
Advanced Research. If you are aware that your family search project requires a lot of time and expertise or you just need as comprehensive results as it is possible this is the option you should consider. Based on your project requirements we will check what is possible to achieve and will discuss details of the project scope individually.
Costs of each level of service consist of a research manager’s and genealogists’ work time on the plus actual costs of traveling to given archives and getting access to records. You will receive a detailed cost for your project before you commit to anything.
How long it may take
Even though we declare a certain amount of hours that we spend on your project, the report may be sent weeks or even months after ordering our services. Why is that? Because usually getting this kind of information takes time: ordering copies of documents from archives or parishes, scheduling visits in parishes may take a while and we don’t always have an influence on that. But you can be sure that we will be in touch regularly to inform you about the work progress.
See also:
Frequently Asked Questions about Genealogy Services.
Terms of Use of the PolishOrigins Genealogy Services.
Testimonials of our Tours’ and Genealogy Services clients.
If you are ready to check what we can do for you fill out the Genealogy Research Request form (This form is inactive until further notice. If you are our returning customer or a customer of our Genealogy Tour, please contact us by email: [email protected]. See the announcement at the top of this page). or contact us by email: [email protected].
If you would like to learn some basics of Polish genealogy on your own, have a look at our Polish Genealogy Academy.