Most citizenship-by-descent claims stall on the same thing: finding the ancestor in the old country. The hometown is unknown, the register is in Latin or old German handwriting, or the village now sits in a different country. That’s the part I do.
I’ve traced my own family through Czech and Hungarian church registers, and I wrote the country guides on this site. Research covers the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Poland and Estonia, plus the US records that connect your family to them. If your ancestor emigrated somewhere else, such as Canada or Australia, the Records Check says whether I can cover those records too.
How it works
Step 1
Request a Records Check
Tell me who you want traced and what you already know, then pay $99.
Step 2
Get the memo and a quote
Within 7 business days: which records exist, whether the line can be traced, which package fits, and a fixed price.
Step 3
Research
If you go ahead, I search the registers and write up each generation. About 3–4 weeks (4–6 for complex cases).
Step 4
Order your documents
A Lineage Report tells you exactly which certified copies to request and where.
What you can order
Find out what records exist for your family and whether the line can be traced.
- ✓Which archives and registers hold your family’s records, and whether they’re online
- ✓Whether the line looks traceable, and what’s likely to be hard
- ✓If one turns up quickly, a record located in the online archives that confirms the line, given as a citation and a link to the archive’s image (not a copy of the document)
- ✓Which package your case needs, with a fixed quote for it
Within 7 business days
I trace your immigrant ancestor back to their town in Europe and locate their baptism entry in the parish register.
- ✓A search of US records available online that may name the town: passenger lists, naturalization records, draft cards, church and death records. If a key file is only held offline, such as a USCIS naturalization file, the report tells you how to order it
- ✓The town identified, with the evidence for it
- ✓The ancestor’s baptism entry located in the home parish register, with a citation and a link to the online image, plus my own transcription and English working translation
- ✓A written report with full citations
About 3–4 weeks
Every generation from you back to your ancestor, each backed by a cited record, plus how to order your documents.
- ✓Each generation from you back to the ancestor you name, up to 5 generations. For you and your parents, the links come from documents you send, such as birth certificates; I find and cite the older records
- ✓A cited record for every link: archive, register, page, and a permalink
- ✓My own transcriptions and English working translations of foreign-language entries (not certified translations)
- ✓A confidence level on every link, with anything unresolved stated plainly
- ✓A family-tree file (GEDCOM) you can import into Ancestry or FamilySearch
- ✓A guide to ordering certified copies: which office, how to ask, fees and typical waits
About 3–4 weeks
Lineage Report, Complex
from $1,750
The same report for harder lines. The Records Check tells you if your case needs it, and the price is fixed in writing before work starts.
- ✓Everything in the Lineage Report
- ✓A Hometown Search where the town isn’t known
- ✓Extra searching around gaps: neighbouring parishes, duplicate registers, civil records
About 4–6 weeks
Additional research hours: $85 an hour. Sold in 5-hour blocks ($425), only after you approve them in writing. The $99 Records Check fee is credited toward a package ordered within 60 days of the memo.
Start with a Records Check
$99, credited toward a package ordered within 60 days. Answer within 7 business days.
What’s in a report
Every link between generations rests on a record I’ve read myself, cited down to the register and page so anyone can check it. Foreign-language entries come with my own transcription and English working translation (not a certified translation), each link is marked proven, probable or not found, and gaps are stated plainly rather than papered over with other people’s online trees. See a sample report or read how the research is done.
What this service doesn’t do
- Tell you whether you qualify for citizenship. That’s for the authorities, a consulate or a lawyer.
- Fill in, file or submit any application, or represent you to any authority.
- Order certified documents for you. We tell you exactly what to order and where.
- Provide certified or sworn translations. Ours are working translations so you know what a record says; an application usually needs a sworn translator.
- Canadian citizenship cases or US immigration matters (including N-600 applications).
- Locate living people, or heir-tracing and probate work.
- Take clients who live in the EU, EEA or UK, for now. The service is open to clients living anywhere else.
Before you apply, check the current rules with the country’s official authority or a qualified lawyer. Our guide to hiring a genealogist lists the questions worth asking any researcher, including me.
Frequently asked questions
Will this tell me whether I qualify for citizenship?
No. I find and document your family line: who was born where, when, and to whom, with the record for each link. Whether that line qualifies is a legal question for the country’s authorities, a consulate or a lawyer. The country guides on this site explain the rules in general terms.
Do you order the certified documents for me?
No. Every report tells you exactly which documents to order, from which office, how to ask, and what it costs. Most offices only issue certified copies of recent records to the person named or close family, so you’d usually have to order them yourself anyway.
What if the records don’t exist?
That’s what the Records Check is for: it shows whether the registers survive and are reachable before you pay for the full research. If a Hometown Search or Lineage Report still finds no record you didn’t already have, half the price is refunded automatically.
How do I know which package I need?
The Records Check decides it. The memo names the package your case needs and gives a fixed price in writing. A case is quoted as a Complex Lineage Report only if the check finds one of these: The hometown isn’t known: no record you have names the town, so it has to be found first; A key register is lost or damaged, so a link has to be rebuilt from other records: duplicate registers, neighbouring parishes, civil or land records; The line crosses a border change, with records split between two countries’ archives; An identity problem: two people with the same name, a name change, an adoption or an illegitimate birth that needs extra records to settle; More than 5 generations, or more than one line to trace. Your package never changes partway through. If something unexpected turns up, I’ll ask before spending any extra paid hours, and if you say no, you get what I found with the gap stated plainly.
Why pay up front?
Each package has a fixed scope agreed in writing after the Records Check, so you know exactly what you’re buying. Open-ended searches are never sold up front; extra hours are only added if you approve them.
Full details, including refunds, are in the research terms.