Question-led investigation
Bring us the family question that never went away.
A person who vanished from the story. A photograph nobody can place. A rumour repeated for decades. We investigate the records that survive and tell you what they can actually support.
The question assessment is free. Where there is a worthwhile route, the Family Story Investigation is £695 total for one agreed question, a sourced report and a one-page family summary. Pay £347.50 to commission and £347.50 when the report is ready, before it is released; no VAT is added.
01 / Why a question first
A mystery gives the research a purpose.
A conventional family tree moves backwards one generation at a time. That can be useful, but it does not always reach the thing somebody actually wants to understand.
A focused investigation begins differently. We define the question, identify what evidence would bear on it, and follow the people and events only as far as the answer requires. The result is more like a carefully reasoned case file than a chart of names.
02 / Questions we can assess
Some questions begin with a person. Others with one stubborn detail.
- A missing chapter
- Where did somebody go, why do they disappear from familiar records, and can their later life be traced?
- A family account
- Can a story about an event, occupation, relationship, crime, journey or change of identity be tested?
- An unidentified image
- Can the date, place, studio, uniform, house or relationships in a photograph narrow down who it shows?
- An uncertain relationship
- Do records support the connection the family has assumed, or point to a different explanation?
- A particular event
- What do contemporary reports and official records reveal about an accident, death, voyage, court case or disappearance?
03 / How conclusions are stated
We make uncertainty visible.
Family accounts deserve to be taken seriously, but not automatically treated as fact. Surviving records deserve the same scrutiny.
DocumentedStated directly in surviving evidence and tied to the right person or event.
Strongly indicatedSeveral details point in one direction, although a decisive record is missing.
UnresolvedA plausible account or lead that the available evidence cannot yet prove.
04 / What a good result looks like
An answer can be valuable without being absolute.
When the evidence answers it
We show the records, connect the findings and explain why the conclusion is sound.
When the answer is partial
We establish what can be known, narrow the possibilities and identify the most promising next record.
We will not manufacture certainty to make a more dramatic story. The boundaries of the evidence are part of the result.
Initial question assessment
What has your family always wondered?
Tell us the story as you know it. We will consider which records may survive, what they could realistically establish and where the evidence may run out before you commit.
The records most likely to bear on the question
Where the evidence may be weak or unavailable
A clear £695 total proposal, only where the starting information suggests a worthwhile research route
One agreed question or ancestral line, with no VAT or mandatory extras
Two staged payments of £347.50, with the second due when the report is ready and before it is released
Included: sourced report, one-page family summary, diagram or timeline where useful, early progress update and one findings follow-up. Scope and dates agreed before payment.