How expensive are forward searches?

[giantkatestacks]

Apologies if I have got the term wrong - and am well aware that searches will be as expensive according to how complicated they are but would really like a ballpark figure.

I would like to search for any living relatives of my mother (now deceased). She was adopted and we have her adoption certificate and her birth certificate.

When I was researching this myself I managed to find 6 brothers and sisters (verified using their ordered birth certificates) and unfortunately a number of them had died in infacy of tb (the reason my mother was adopted).

I cant get any further than this though as I cant find marriage dates for the remaining siblings - would a professional be worth the money?

Have you put the information you have onto a tree in ancestry to see if it shows any matches? It sounds like you've done a lot of online research already, but if you want a fresh pair of eyes to take a look just email me (bubblerockjl 2 at aol . com)

I have no idea how much professional researchers would charge, I guess it would be worth the money if you find a whole new family!

thanks for that - will give it a go...now I have 2 dcs I dont have the time (and the money) that I had a few years ago when I started it for the first time.

It is far more difficult going forward than going backwards, you have probably found this out as you have tryed yourself to research and got a way forward.

I would actually email your nearest record office and ask them for advice on doing this yourslef or who they would recommend for you to use.

This type of thing becomes complicated becaues coming forward has implications of both data protection (thus why coming forward is more difficult - going back data protection doesn't count on dead people only living)

Also freedom of information comes into effect as you have the rights to certain information that any council may hold on your mothers siblings that survived, they have to let you have information that they have if they can find it! that is the problem, they may not have the information still or it may not exsist.

For sdomeone else to research for you could cost between £6-25 per hour and the cost may not be relevant to the actual quality of the research.

If it was me wanting to employ someone - then i would want a probate searcher to do it - the reason being they are well established at searching coming forward, so it will not take them long to do the searching and even if they cahrge £45 per hour it will probably take them far far less time than someone inexperianced that may charge £10 per hour work for 10 hours and provide nothing.

probate searchers due to the nature of their job search at top speed they need results fast and qucik to get the prize - so they will search fast and get results - hopefully. They also often have a lot of the resources needed at home so will not charge for travelling time - it is in the home office or office.

google heir searchers or probate searchers

Hope this helps and gives you information you need to find your mothers family

thanks ivykaty - thats really helpful...