Initial Discussion
The first step in investigating your family story will be a free preliminary discussion to explore and agree the research you are requesting me to carry out. If you require the research for a specific event, please advise me of this and the date it is needed for. If there are specific areas of your family you would like me to research, please advise me of your questions. I will ask you to provide copies of any documents you may possess or any genealogical research that has already been carried out for review to avoid unnecessary research time and expenditure. I will then provide you with an estimate of the time needed to research your request. Once we have agreed the scope of the work to be carried out and you accept the estimate, I will send you a contract setting out the work we have agreed for you to sign – this formally records our mutual obligations.
Fees and Payment
My fees are currently £25 per hour which covers time spent on research, analysis and report preparation and communication.
Out of pocket expenses, charged at cost, will be discussed with the client prior to being incurred and include:
- Certificates.
- Wills and administrations.
- Fees for entrance to repositories/special collections.
- Fees for copying/downloading documents on pay-per-view websites.
- Fees levied in Record Offices for photographing/copying documents.
- Newspaper articles .
- Travel costs and, if necessary, essential hotel accommodation relating to research in regional or national archives.
- Postage costs.
I will require a £100 deposit from you to secure a research slot. An invoice will be issued for the outstanding balance once the report has been completed and the balance must be received as cleared funds before the final report is posted or emailed. Payment can be made, in Sterling, by the following methods
- Cheque
- Bank Transfer – details will be provided upon request
- PayPal – details will be provided upon request.
Copyright
You will receive a physical copy of my reports and any charts produced. These will remain the copyright of Rosemary Hathaway and are for the use of the client and their immediate family only. They may not be reproduced or published without my written consent.
Confidentiality
I am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a data controller (reference number ZA459281). I will not share or publish reports commissioned by you without your explicit permission. I will only use information you provide to carry out your commission and to communicate with you.
Disclaimers
If information provided by clients regarding their family history is used as the basis for research and unfortunately proves to be inaccurate, I cannot be held responsible. Any research undertaken on this basis will still need to be paid for by the client.
I will make every effort to identify the correct person, however it is not always possible to be certain of the accuracy of historical records. Our ancestors, at times, supplied inaccurate information sometimes innocently as they did not know the truth and, at times, to hide the truth. I will advise you of any concerns I have, however I cannot be held liable for inaccuracies made in good faith.
Whilst I will make every effort to provide the client with the requested information, this cannot be guaranteed, nor can every family line be traced back as far as others. This may because the records no longer survive (or never existed) or because an individual or family cannot be identified beyond reasonable doubt. In these circumstances fess will still apply as research will have been carried out to reach this point. I will keep a record for you of which records have been searched – research carried out will be included in the final written report. Should this occur very early in the research project I will advise the client and, in the event that the research time expended has not accounted for all of the deposit, return any remaining funds.
These terms and conditions were last reviewed on 5 August 2020.