Why did you develop your four-generation albums?
Although there are many competent genealogy researchers in the United States, there seem to be very few who will take your ancestral information and create a beautiful book that no one in your family will ever discard. We saw an unfilled need and decided to create a bridge between the researcher community and the heirloom album community.

What prompts people to get this research done?
Reasons are varied. Some clients are assembling ethical wills, a legacy of documents, books, and multi-media materials for their children and grandchildren. Others have always been curious about their families, but know that they cannot devote the time to research and to learning how to use a genealogy computer program.

People often order the albums as gifts for reunions, birthdays, anniversaries, and other family events. Although our shipping time is four to six weeks, you should plan for a lead time of three months to get your product for a special event.

How do we start the process to obtain a Deluxe 4-Generation Album?
Simply fill out the order form, and we will email and/or mail you a questionnaire in which we ask for details of your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, to the extent that you know them. We also ask for copies of certain family photos and documents listed on the questionnaire. If you have them, great. If not, we will find images that tell your family's story almost as well as personal photographs.

What distinguishes your albums from a genealogy research report?
Our albums are beautiful and easy to follow. When we first developed them, we realized how difficult it is to organize information on various ancestral lines so that most readers could keep track of all the players, so to speak. That led us to develop a color-coding system (see below).

Like a research report, our albums contain excerpts from original documents and source citations. And, like a research report, our albums contain the most accurate information we can generate within the time constraints. Unlike most research reports, we compile and organize your family information with an eye to creating a coffee-table book of which you can be proud.

My family immigrated from China in 1965. Will you be able to determine four generations of my ancestry?
Probably not. We can outline four generations of most American, Canadian, Mexican, and European families. If you are Chinese and your family has been here since the early 1900's, we can probably determine the four generations. However, researching in Asian, African, and South American records after 1950 is beyond our capabilities at this point.

In this situation, you might want to consider getting the Gold Album, which develops a pedigree for three generations, most of whom you probably already know. We would correlate applicable American records and bring in whatever general information we could find on the ancestral country.

I am only interested in the Irish county of origin of my great-great grandmother. I think her last name was Collins and her family was from Tennessee. Can you research that situation?
Yes, we can. However, you might want to consider that our first order of business will be to start with YOU and work our way back to that great-great-grandmother. We cannot start with her because we have no idea which of the hundreds of women named Collins in Tennessee she was.

In other words, we will be going through much of the 4-Generation Album research process. That means you might want to get at least the Bronze package first, and then hire us to work on your specific research question. This approach has an additional advantage - you and your family will get a beautiful heirloom album that no one will ever discard.

How are the research albums color coded?
We use a long-standing genealogy color-coding system, assigning one color to each of your four grandparent surnames. If you picture a traditional 4-generation pedigree chart, you will see the root individual (you), two parents, four grandparents, and eight great-grandparents. There are seven couples on this chart - one parent couple, two grandparent couples, four great-grandparent couples.

Using the paternal grandparent surname, we color code three couples bearing the paternal grandfather surname with the first color, blue. One couple, the parents of the paternal grandmother, is coded green. Two couples, bearing the surname of the maternal grandfather, are coded rose. And, finally, a single couple, the parents of the maternal grandmother, is coded gold. It sounds complicated, but it is very easy to follow in the albums.

I have already done my own research. Will you put my family tree information into your format?
Yes, we can do that, and adjust the price on an individual basis.

Can I get duplicate copies of my album for each of my children?
Yes, we will be developing a pricing structure for duplicate albums in the near future. In the meantime, please let us know on your order form that you are interested in this option, and we will get back to you with a firm price.

Why don't you trace all my lines as far back as possible?
The simple answer is TIME. You have 16 great-great-grandparents and 32 great-great-great grandparents, and tracing to the third great-grandparent generation takes most of us back only to 1800-1850. The expense of researching more than eight lines would be prohibitive for most people.

Therefore, tracing earlier than 1850 forces most of us to select only those surnames and families that seem the most interesting. On the other hand, our four-generation products take most people back to 1850-1900. Generally, we can develop documentation on all of their lines and create a valuable family heirloom.

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