The Dossier: Getting Started
Sample Dossier Cover Page
Answer these questions to get started:
Here are some things you need to know about my process:
*Digitization of your documents can be done by you or me. The regular hourly rate will apply if I digitize your documents. You will get all the soft copies of anything of yours put in digital form.
- Who is your Generation 1 or home person for the dossier? In other words, who will the family history start from? This could be you, a child, a parent, etc.
- How much data to you have on the home person’s prior generations? Here is a list of information I typically use to get started. If you know more, great.
- Do you have your own family documents (letters, certificates, photos, etc.) that you would like to include in the Dossier? If so, do those exist in digital format or do we need to digitize them?*
- Will you want more than one physical copy of the Dossier?
Here are some things you need to know about my process:
- I will only include facts and material that I find from primary resources. I will not use unsourced information from other people’s family trees.
- I will do all my research via the phone, the web, or my local genealogy library. A LOT can be discovered about your family without incurring travel costs to you. I have paid subscriptions to most of the mainstream genealogical information on the web.
- The types of records that I typically find online and provide copies of include: census records, death certificates, marriage licenses, birth records, World War I & II draft registration cards, Civil War service records, sometimes baptismal information and newspaper articles including obituaries. If I can't provide you with copies you will certainly be given source information so you can find it yourself.
- Information after 1940 is generally not available for privacy purposes. Keep in mind that most of what you will get in your Dossier will be pre-1940 material.
*Digitization of your documents can be done by you or me. The regular hourly rate will apply if I digitize your documents. You will get all the soft copies of anything of yours put in digital form.