Don't go mad !! To novices, it may seem as if you have an elusive ancestor who just went and jumped down a hole one day, never to return. In most cases, they turn up eventually in the strangest places. That is why I am here. In this day and age, it is easy to switch on a computer and trace your family from the comfort of your arm chair. However, at times, it isn't so easy and the paperwork you need may be hundreds of miles away or you just may not have the expertise needed to work through the often complicated life of your elusive ancestor.

It is known in the trade as a BRICK WALL however, most brick walls can be demolished.

It all depends on how much work needs to be undertaken. Most people agree to accept the minimum and then get hooked and want to know more and more. A little like reading a serialised book.

I charge a minimum of £100 which equates to 5 hours work. In this time, I hope to discover as much as possible about your ancestor and aim to reply as quickly as possible with the results.

If by this time, I think that there is a lot more information to uncover or if I think that the information is drying up, then I can inform you and you can decide how to proceed.

Birth, marriage and death certificates should be purchased as necessary documents to confirm all research and are at present charged at £10 per item to include p&p.

All other standard copying is part of the quotation. However, if specialist documents are required such as police service records or army records, then they will be charged at cost and I will only act as a third party to obtain them.

My travelling costs to Birmingham, Warwick, Stratford and Solihull are included. However, for individual specialised trips to places further afield, then additional costs may be incurred.

In some cases, I have been approached to conduct a full and thorough research and/or biography on one or several lines of a family tree. This is usually for a special occasion such as a birthday or wedding present. I have also been approached by third parties to research the life of famous individuals for publications such as "Who's Who". These are more unusual requests and can sometimes run into £1000's.

So the simple answer is............how much do you want to spend ?

And finally............all work must be paid for in advance.

With progress over the last ten years in family history websites, it is very easy to establish a comprehensive family tree in a very short space of time. On paper, it may all seem as if the work is complete. However, by obtaining official documentation such as birth, marriage and death certificates, it may soon become obvious that your grandmother's brother was actually her son or cousin. Or that grandfather's marriage to grandmother shows him as a widower and that he had had ten children by a previous marriage that you had not been aware of before.

Over the years I have seen it all. Husbands who have had enough of their wives and so have committed them to institutions while they go away, change their names and remarry. Often leaving their now motherless children to the workhouse.

Desperate women who have left behind their drunken good for nothing hubands and boarded a ship for foreign lands, taking their children to new lives and opportunities.

The stories of orphan children shipped to all four corners of the earth is a familiar one.

Newspaper articles and coroners reports on women who have thrown themselves under a horse and cart. Men who have arrived home in a drunken stupor only to be found with their throats cut the following morning. Even my own family had their fair share of skeletons in the cupboard. Now would just finding a gravestone confirm those gruesome details ?

And then the successes of the great and good. Nothing can equal the excitement of finding a photograph of a missing or unknown ancestor. A newspaper article or even a name included on a list which will prove an affiliation that ties an ancestor to a certain place and time. All are equally rewarding.

When you set out on your quest, you cannot expect to find anything. Only hope that you will be one of the lucky ones.

Genealogical searches can have negative as well as positive results. Sometimes records have simply not survived, they maybe water damaged, or faded and therefore can no longer be deciphered. Sometimes there are gaps in parish registers due to bad church administration (I once dealt with the records of a Catholic church in Cheshire who had "lost" over 50 years worth of registers). Sometimes a person will state a place of birth in a census return, but there is no corresponding baptism. A wider search may then have to be undertaken in the hope of finding the right person. There is no guarantee in advance that this can be done. Setbacks do occur and eventually you may have to accept that a line of the family may not offer up any more clues. Searching for these elusive ancestors takes considerable time and effort and there are no refunds if the result is a negative outcome, due to the amount of time spent in the search.