who we are
Ancestors Traced
Read about us below to find out what we do, our range of prices and see actual examples of research carried out for clients
Your Ancestral Story researched by professional
Genealogists and social historians
Presented as a professional report - original documents discovered
with relevant historical illustrations and an easy to read narrative
Discover exact ancestral locations - whether Britain (Scotland, England), Ireland or Europe
Record Sources go far beyond those found on the internet
Background
Ancestry Research Service was formed in 1985 by Gordon McPhail, a professional genealogist. He has traced thousands of ancestries since then. The more recent business name of Ancestry Doctor reflects the service's special skill in tracing ancestries to their fullest extent - bringing back to 'life' as many of your ancestors as possible - their stories and the times in which they lived.
Expertise
Apart from private clients - people like you with unique ancestral stories - Ancestry Doctor's services have been used in other situations - regular genealogy lectures and classes in both the U.K. and the U.S.A; carrying out vital research for media related projects such as the TV programmeWho Do You Think You Are?
At Ancestry Doctor we are both professional genealogists and historians.
Individual clients form much of our daily work - but beyond the basics we also have vast experience in dealing with 'difficult' cases where you may have reached a dead end. Amateur genealogists, though passionate about their ancestry, will reach a point where they need help. Contacting us from the outset ensures that a lasting family history is traced properly.
The Actual Research and Our Prices
Below are also listed some of the record sources we use. These provide a lot of historical detail about your ancestral family.
Since our formation in 1985 we have kept to the same structure of offering three set fees for research. This gives a new client choice at which level to begin
Our fees are:
£230 £460 £690
All of our clients have a decent amount of research carried out, no matter which of our three set fees they decide to go with. The records used to trace your family tree are wide and varied, are found at a variety of archival locations and go far beyond sources found on the internet. Online sources are useful for basic records but they are not the full picture.
Hiring a truly professional genealogist has various benefits - the researcher (in our case, Gordon has upwards of 30 years experience of research and now instructs a team of professionals) knows exactly where to find record sources, how to use them to best advantage and because of such expertise, can put together results of an ancestry far more quickly than the amateur researcher. These are professional fees for which you should expect and will receive professional results.
THE RECORDS USED & WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT US TO FIND:
The records used to trace your family tree are wide and varied. Those used most frequently:
Records of Ancestors' Births/Baptisms & Marriages
Records of when and where they died
Census records listing all members of a family
Gravestone Inscriptions & Where they are laid to rest
In addition most ancestries also involve using a variety of further sources:
Wills and other legal type records
Old Newspapers: obituaries etc
Old Maps: pinpointing ancestral locations
Records relating to an ancestor's Occupation
Old Photos and Sketches of Places/People
Other sources sometimes used: old hospital records; historic records of financial assistance in old age
Local and social history of the places where they lived
The above is merely a list of sources. Having a professional researcher carry out a search using these sources results in a detailed family history.
You will discover exact ancestral locations, what your ancestor did for a living, the size of the family, how long they lived, ancestral names, their financial standing, the local and national social history (the times) they lived through and a lot more.
Read below about a brief example of a search carried out for a client
and then Click on our What Clients Say & Examples to view actual research reports for clients and read comments by a small selection of these down the years.
Questions You May Have
We know that most potential clients ask the same question:
How far back in time can you trace for a particular fee? How much information will you discover about my ancestors?
Below is the answer we have been using successfully for over 30 years:
Firstly, the amount of time spent on research is of course proportionate to the fee - in other words the higher the price the more time spent on research
Research is about finding details of individual ancestors' lives, it is not only about how many generations back in time can be traced although we strive to also extend a family tree as far as possible. It is also about filling out a family history to result in a research report narrating the lives of our individual forebears and their families. Each ancestry is different.However, as a general guide, we can take two examples: a British (Scottish/English/Irish) ancestry with a starting point of an ancestor born in the late 19th/mid 20th century, can be traced back by several generations to a point around 1750-1770, although many can go beyond that point; an emigrant ancestor (from Britain/Europe) may have been born earlier than this (18th/19th century) and in such cases research would begin with the sources in the country to which they emigrated and work back to the country of origin.
If you now wish to proceed with research
please Click on our Prices page to find out the information we require from you and to make payment.
What Clients Say & Examples Prices Contact Us
Ancestry Doctor, 0/1, 18 Norham Street, Glasgow G41 3XQ Scotland; 200 Kirkland Rd, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169 USA
Tel: (UK) 07933445805 (USA) (615) 584 3722
If you now wish to proceed with research please click Prices
which will take you to our payments page and ask you for the
information we need in order to carry out the research
We also offer two services directly connected to our ancestral research work. **Living Descendants traced where we can connect you with persons who have ancestral branches in common with you.
**Our Ancestral Tours is also popular with clients who have had a significant amount of research carried out - and who want to visit exact ancestral locations.
For details of these and other services see our OTHER SERVICES page.
A Research Case: A typical example of work for a client
As a starting point, the client had recalled her maternal grandfather (from the 1930s),
as a foreman at a tobacco factory and a lay preacher, well known locally with his own mission hall,
especially concerned that poor children in the neighbourhood did not go without
gifts at Christmas or food if their families were poor. She also recalled that he had
financed and opened shops for two of his sons (the client's uncles). It was also known
from the client's own mother, that the said grandfather's mother had come from Dundee
in Scotland. Here the known information, from living memory, ended.
Research commenced with
investigation into the client's mother's line. Among much else discovered, was the grandfather's birth record in Glasgow, Scotland in 1870 and a series of historic applications for relief of persons in financial distress, narrating the grandfather's boyhood spent partly in circumstances of extreme poverty, including a period spent in the city poorhouse with his mother, brother and sister. His father, it was found, died in chronic ill health when he was aged 6. Further research then revealed a drastic change in fortune down the generations - the boy's (grandfather's) mother had indeed originated from Dundee, but from a family far removed from her time fallen on hard times in Glasgow - in fact, it was found that she had been one of 14 children, born in Dundee to a property owning couple, who had been steadily building up ownership of several shop and house properties leased to at least 40 tenants in that town, when both had died in their mid 40s, leaving a situation of bancruptcy.
From this finding alone, the Client's grandfather's life work of great concern for the poor children
of his neighbourhood and his establishing his own sons as shopowners, began to make sense.
Further research then located his burial place, and not one but two tombstones - one erected by family, the other by his mission hall congregation. Research on his father's side also revealed a family of shopkeepers and property owners. Whilst our client's mother was one of his daughters, a search
was also made for descendants of his other children - leading to family connections and old
photos of the family new to the client.
The above is but one example and only a small part of the full discoveries made on this ancestry. To read sections from fuller, illustrated actual Research Reports
on this and several other sample cases, please Click What Clients Say & Examples
Such changes of family fortune as found above were known.There is always a story attached to our findings far beyond mere names and dates
Ancestry Doctor
Ancestry Doctor LLC
Take A Walk Into The Past : Meet The Ancestors : Your Unique History
Scottish/English/Irish/American & European Ancestry Traced Professionally [Est. 1985]
U.K. Office: 0/1, 18 Norham St., Glasgow G41 3XQ Tel: 07933445805
U.S.A. Office: 200 Kirkland Rd, New Smyrna Beach FL 32169 Tel: (615) 584 3722
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