Bespokegenealogy.com Terms and Conditions

By commissioning research from bespokegenealogy.com, the client agrees to these terms and conditions.

Research will not begin until payment has been received in full (or if agreed in advance, the required deposit) and funds cleared.
In cases where a deposit is accepted, the completed research will not be sent to the client until the balance of payment has been received and cleared. This must be received within 30 days of request. If the client wishes to extend the budget, then an additional deposit or payment for the work conducted so far and a new deposit for the continued work will be required. If in our opinion, the research is largely finished but, we are waiting for information from the client, for example photographs, to reach full completion then we reserve the right to request the balance, which must be paid within 30 days.

Unless part of a fixed price package, research will be undertaken at the agreed hourly rate. Activities that are chargeable within this hourly rate include:

Analysing information provided to us by the client or considering next research steps
Responding to correspondence with the client
Time spent obtaining certificates and copies of documents

Travel is charged at cost.
Unless part of a fixed price package, before starting research an hourly rate and a budget will be agreed. This budget will not be exceeded without the permission of the client.
The electronic files needed to generate research reports will be retained for at least 6 months from completion of research. It may not be possible to obtain further copies after this period.

Genealogy often involves examining original, transcripts or images of historic documents. These may be unclear, misleading, and incorrect or even contradict other sources. We accept no liability for any loss, damage or inconvenience that may arise from any information extracted from sources, any errors in transcripts from these sources or conclusions derived from them.
No guarantee is made that any research assignment will lead to positive results. The documents that contain the required information may not have survived or may never have existed. Ancestors sometimes went to great lengths to conceal their identity, such as falsely giving information so that it is not always possible to establish the truth.
Fees are payable for our research time and associated costs (for example travel or cost of obtaining copies of documents). These fees are payable as agreed with the client regardless whether the desired information is found or not. In the event of a negative search, our research report will detail sources that have been consulted.

We offer fixed price research packages. These packages are based on a specified amount of research time as well as the cost of obtaining certain documents (generally birth, marriage and death certificates or images from civil registration registers) and producing reports/charts/books as appropriate.
The research package information supplied gives an indication on what is generally possible with the budget given, however results will vary depending on various factors including geographic location of the client’s ancestors, how common the names are and the survival of relevant records.
Research goals of fixed priced packages are targeted to discover the specified number of generations/ancestors as applicable to the package. We reserve the right to decide the exact mix of research time and documents obtained with this goal in mind. For example, it may be beneficial to spend additional research time in preference to obtaining a document.

The objective of fixed price packages is to obtain an overview of your ancestors; it is therefore unlikely that every detail of a particular ancestor’s life or every document in which they appear will be used.
By submitting photographs to us, the client declares that he/she has the right to do so, and that he/she has obtained any third party consents where required (e.g., under data protection or intellectual property laws). These photographs will be reproduced in the clients report and any other report ordered.
On rare occasions it may not be possible to complete the research goals for a fixed price package. For example, the client’s ancestors may have emigrated to a place outside of the Country of research or the required documents may not have survived or have ever existed. If this becomes apparent in the first hour of research and before any costs have been accrued in obtaining documents we will generally offer a full refund. If this occurs after significant research has taken place we will contact the client and make a decision on whether to offer a part refund or concentrate research on another area of the family.

Digital copies of photographs and documents should be sent to us. However, if this is not possible, we can scan photographs or documents for the client but accept no liability for damage or loss of these items whilst in transit to us, during storage and scanning by us or when being returned to the client.

If the client decides to cancel after research has started, there will be no refund of the deposit paid. A calculation will be made for the time spent on research up to that point at the agreed hourly rate which will be payable by the client. In addition, the client will be charged for any documents obtained in the course of the research. No research report will be completed
We reserve the right to cancel research for a client at any time, and refund any monies paid less fees accrued to date.

We take a great deal of pride in our research, however, if there is an error or omission that is our fault, we will do our best to rectify it at our expense.