How-to - Genealogy Austria

Once I have received the completed Contact Form I will send you an email with questions about your request and information about the further procedure.

In order to clarify whether and how I can help you, I request that you provide me with concrete details of your request.

You should provide all documents likely to contribute to a successful research (copies of all materials you have acquired: extracts of any census, church, vital, or other records; photos; news clippings… etc.). As well, any stories handed down across generations (e.g. the languages spoken by your ancestors or rumors about your family history).

Based on the provided information I will assess the feasibility of a successful research.

If I find that the data is insufficient to allow me to help you, I will let you know so and the project will stop right there at no cost to you.

Since it is very difficult to evaluate the effort for genealogical research in advance I recommend to start with a small research package. Based on the result of this package you can decide if or how you want to proceed with the research. This keeps you in full control of the budget.

If there is sufficient data for a research to be successful, then I will send you my offer for the genealogical research and subsequently my engagement letter for signature. This agreement includes the research goal, the time frame, the maximum costs and the payment modalities.

IMPORTANT: You are in the driver’s seat as far as cost and time are concerned! No surprises! Once the cost or time ceilings have been reached I will let you know and you will decide if you want to set a higher ceiling.

In the course of my research, I gather information from sources as diverse as church, state and military archive records, newspaper articles and other. The research work includes the transcription, translation and citation of selected documents.

According to “Genealogy Standards”, after completion of the project you will receive a written final report, describing the procedure followed,  the type of records analyzed, and a digest of their contents. A research journal lists the course of the research, the sources including citation and the documents collected. You will also receive digital images (scans, photos) of all found documents including a translation which conveys the general sense.

The duration of a research project depends on the availability of required sources and on respond times of authorities, offices and archves. At present a research project can be performed within approx. 14-16 weeks.

I charge EUR 96.00 per hour (including 20% Value Added Tax and the fee for money transfer). This fee includes research, transcription, translation and data entry. Classic research projects usually start with 5 hours. In this time I can ideally research 2 to 4 additional complete generations. And you can start the adventure “genealogy” already with 480,00 Euro.