Last updated: 9 November 2026
These terms apply when you order research from Citizenship-by-Descent.com, run by Michael Soucek (“we”, “I”). By requesting a Records Check or paying for a package, you agree to them.
1. What you’re buying
You’re paying for genealogical research: searching records, reading and translating them, and writing up what they show. You are paying for the research work, not for any particular result. Records may be missing, damaged, unindexed or closed to the public, and no outcome is guaranteed.
- Records Check ($99): Find out what records exist for your family and whether the line can be traced.
- Hometown Search ($650): I trace your immigrant ancestor back to their town in Europe and locate their baptism entry in the parish register.
- Lineage Report ($1,250): Every generation from you back to your ancestor, each backed by a cited record, plus how to order your documents.
- 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.
- Additional research hours ($85 an hour): Sold in 5-hour blocks ($425), only after you approve them in writing.
After the Records Check you receive a written quote that sets the scope of the package: the ancestor, the generations, and the record types to be searched. That written scope is part of these terms. Work outside it needs your written approval before it starts.
The quote names the package your case needs. A case is quoted as a Complex Lineage Report only if the Records Check finds one or more of the following:
- 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.
A package is never changed to another package after research begins. If extra work turns out to be needed, it is offered as additional hours, which you can accept or decline.
2. Not legal advice
The research documents your family line. It is not legal advice, and it is not an assessment of whether you or anyone else qualifies for citizenship, a passport or any other status. Eligibility is decided by the relevant government authority. Laws and practice change, so check current requirements with that authority or a qualified lawyer before you apply.
The service does not:
- 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.
3. Payment
The Records Check and each package are paid in full before work starts, by card through Stripe. The $99 Records Check fee is credited toward the first package you order within 60 days of receiving the memo. Prices are in US dollars and include no taxes unless stated.
4. When research begins
Research on a package begins when I send you a start-of-work email confirming the scope. You can cancel any time before that email for a full refund.
5. Refunds
- Before research begins: full refund.
- No new record found: if a Hometown Search or Lineage Report finds no record you didn’t already have, half the package price is refunded automatically when the report is delivered. A “new record” means a record about a person in the agreed scope that you hadn’t listed in your request or sent to me.
- Otherwise: once research has begun, fees are not refundable, because the work has been done.
- Records Check: refundable if you cancel before I’ve started it, or if I can’t take your case (for example, it’s outside the countries or work this service covers). In that case I’ll tell you within 2 business days and refund the full $99.
Where clients live: for now the research service is only available to clients who live outside the EU, EEA and UK. If I find that a client lives there, I’ll refund in full before starting. This doesn’t reduce any rights you have under your local consumer law.
If something goes wrong, please contact me first. Most problems can be fixed by email.
6. Timing
Turnaround times are good-faith estimates, not deadlines. I take on a limited number of projects at a time; if there’s a wait before I can start a package, I’ll tell you before you pay for it. If a project will run more than two weeks past the estimate, I’ll tell you and say why.
7. What you receive
A written report (PDF) with citations, transcriptions and translations, a GEDCOM family-tree file for packages that include it, and record images where the holding archive’s terms allow them. Where they don’t, the report links to the image on the archive’s own site. The report doesn’t include certified copies of any record, and its translations are working translations, not certified or sworn ones. The report is for your personal use and your own application. Archive images stay subject to the archive’s terms.
8. Your part
Please give accurate information and tell me what you’ve already found. Research built on a wrong starting fact (a wrong name, year or town) may need extra hours to correct. Don’t send passport, ID or Social Security numbers; they aren’t needed.
9. How your information is used
Your information is used only for your research and kept as described in the privacy policy. I don’t sell or share it, and I don’t publish anything about your family without your written permission.
10. Liability
Research is done with care, but records can be wrong and handwriting can be misread. To the extent the law allows, my total liability for any claim about the research is limited to the fees you paid for it. I’m not liable for a government’s decision on any application, or for losses from relying on the research instead of checking requirements with the authorities.
11. Changes and contact
These terms may be updated; the version on the date you pay applies to that order. Questions: contact form or hello@citizenship-by-descent.com. Postal address: Michael Soucek, 102 17th Ave NW, Ste 102 #5009, Rochester, MN 55901, United States.