I’m a passionate and persistent genealogy researcher and writer who delights in solving complex genealogy problems. I’m loathe to leave a family history puzzle alone until I’ve reached a resolution, at which time I relish shaping my research into accessible yet professionally written and academically cited reports and histories. My approach to genealogy is supported by a strong academic foundation of research in archaeology and human evolution, along with a career in package design project management. And, because I can’t get enough of genealogy and genetics, I’m also an adoption volunteer with Search Angels!
I have over fifteen years experience managing genealogy research projects and writing family history narratives dating from the 16th to the 20th century with a focus on Canada, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, France, Sweden, and the Alsace. In Canada, I specialize in Ontario, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Acadian and French-Canadian research. Worldwide, I work with records both typewritten and handwritten in English, French, German and Swedish.
I’ll happily work on your family history project, or simply access a number of local repositories and sites to find your much-needed information whether it be document retrievals, history lookups, cemetery and burial lookups, church records—and more! Some of the places I love to get busy in are the Archives of Ontario, the City of Toronto Archives, and the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library which has an impressive collection of genealogy holdings.
I’d be happy to seek probate packages for your ancestor in the Archives of Ontario. You may find a will, guardianship papers, or, if your ancestor died intestate, letters of administration and petitions, all of which would contain valuable genealogical details.
All I require is the full name of your ancestor, their date of death, and the specific place* in which they are thought to have passed away. If research reveals that a probate package does not exist for your ancestor, my research fee will be reduced to $20.
*The city or township and county—If you have no idea where your ancestor lived, or only know the Ontario county in which they lived, my fee will increase to $50.
If you think your ancestor owned land, or received a land grant, I’d be excited to find out too! There’s a chance you might even find a will tucked in among the records.
I’ll need the full name of your ancestor, when and specifically where they lived to streamline the search. If you have no idea where your ancestor lived, or only know the Ontario county in which they lived, my fee will increase to $50. And of course, if I discover that your ancestor did not in fact own land, my research fee will be reduced to $20.
Sometimes cemetery and burial records just aren’t available online, and I'll do all I can to help find your ancestor's place of rest in Ontario. And, if the cemetery is in Toronto or Mississauga, I can visit it for a fee of $40 to access burial or internment records and photograph the grave site. Burial or internment records can provide further interesting details such as the identification of additional family members!
If you provide me with the name of your ancestor, and a rough idea of when and where they passed away, I’ll get busy with the search.
I love to read local history accounts, and I can access many of these about town that may not be available online. Local history books can illuminate the lives of our ancestors beyond the bare bones of dates and places!
My fee is based on searching one book and copying up to ten pages of the details found within it. All you need to do is let me know the title and author of the book you’re interested in, and of course, the name of your ancestor, and when and where they lived. I'll first advise if I can access the book before proceeding. If you don’t have a specific book in mind, I’ll conduct a survey of holdings for an added fee of $5 for you to select from. If I don’t find mention of your ancestor or family in the selected source, my research fee will be reduced to $5 per book.
City directories may seem like a dry well of information, yet decidedly they’re not! They can confirm exactly where your ancestor lived, the dates they lived at that location, their occupation, and perhaps other family members. This information can be of great help when searching for probate or land records.
For my fee, I’ll search ten directories for your ancestor once you have provided me with their name and the township and county of their residence. If you’d like fewer directories searched, my fee will be reduced.
Assessment rolls are kind of like a cousin to census returns. They were conducted for tax purposes based on property and farm production, and can be used to pinpoint your ancestor’s whereabouts between census returns. Although assessment rolls typically provide the head of household only, you can learn other details about your ancestor such as their exact location, how many acres they held and what crops were produced, the number of people in the family, and perhaps your ancestor’s age. Sometimes, assessment rolls in Ontario also contain statute labor rolls, which listed men in a community expected to contribute to road work and maintenance. These rolls are helpful in finding young male ancestors who had not yet purchased or leased their own property.
All that I’ll need is the name of your ancestor, the township and county of their residence, and approximately when they lived there. My fee is based on searching five years of assessment rolls for one ancestor. We can discuss exactly what years you would like search, and of course, my fee will be reduced if you wish to search fewer years.
Voter’s records in Ontario have scattered availability between the years 1874 and 1978. If you know the township and county your ancestor lived in and roughly when, I’ll first let you know if anything is available for that location, and specify the years for no charge.
Simply send me the name and specific location of your ancestor, and indicate the years you would like researched. My fee is based on searching for your ancestor in five years of voter’s lists, and will be reduced for fewer years.
If you’d like me to search for an elusive church record, I can visit a number of local repositories and conduct a ten year search surrounding the date you feel the event—whether a birth, marriage or death—may have taken place. I have access to the United Church of Canada Archives (which has holdings for Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational denominations), the Presbyterian Church in Canada Archives, the Anglican Diocese of Toronto Archives, and of course, the holdings at the Ontario Archives.
All you need to do is provide me with the name and specific location of your ancestor, and indicate what event(s) and the approximate date(s) you'd like researched. My fee is for one record per ancestor, and I'll be sure to conduct a search five years before and after the suspected date of the event.
Not really sure where to get started with your ancestor? I'd love to get busy discovering as much as I can about their past during one hour of dedicated online research using my creative search strategies. I'll scour as many records sets as possible beginning with census returns, vital statistics and parish registers. This is the type of research that can provide a great foundation for future, more focused research.
All I need is any information you have about your ancestor — the usual — name, dates, places, and anything else you can think of — and I'll be off and running down the path to gather as much information as I can during that hour. Before proceeding, though, I'll be sure to assess your information and confirm whether or not my service is appropriate for your needs.
I really can’t get enough of genealogy, and would love to discover new, fascinating lives. If you have a family branch that intrigues you, I’ll research a single surname of that branch back as many generations as you’d like based on my per-generation fee. I’ll scour sources available to me such as birth, marriage, death and burial records, census records, probate records, land records and more! I've traced countless families in Canada and back to England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Sweden, Alsace-Lorraine, and parts of Germany. I've also worked with families in the US, yet my locality means that several record sets are inaccessible for me.
✔ A Research Report written in the form of a historical narrative and embellished with cropped images of related original documents or images. The narrative will present, summarize and analyze all research findings, and will be supported by full academic source citations in the form of endnotes and where pertinent, additional explanatory notes.
✔ Full size digital images of all original documents found, conveniently labeled for ease of cross- reference.
✔ A Research Log thoroughly detailing all sources consulted, the purpose for the consultation, and the results of the findings.
If your ancestor did not reside in Ontario, but you’d like help with your research, we can have an email chat to discuss the details and whether or not I can access sufficient records to conduct an exhaustive study of your surname, and clarify fees.
Simply send as many details about the Ontario ancestor generation you're burning to know more about, and we'll get started! My fee is based on researching one generation of one surname—working with records from the 19th to the 20th century.
Not keen on reading old handwriting? It’s a fun challenge for me—like a puzzle! If you have a will, land record or letters that you wish to have transcribed for ease of reading or posterity and to share with family members, send me your document and my fingers will soon be flying over the keyboard. If there is a word that is simply, irretrievably illegible, I’ll make a note of it in my transcription, along with suggestions for the word solution.
My fee is a per-page fee, based on transcribing one roughly 8 ½ x 11 fully covered document. However, if what you have is shorter, I’ll reduce my fees accordingly.
Would you like to transform all those chicken-scratch census returns into one clean, easy-to-read document for future handy reference? I’ll transcribe the census records you’ve found for your ancestor and their families into a single package, creating a vignette of ‘The [insert SURNAME] Family Through Census Records’. I’ll add little notes and analyses for each census entry, and include full source citations. If you haven’t found your ancestor in census returns and would like to engage my research services, I can help for an added fee of $20 per census record.
I'll need to have your original census record findings digitally transferred to me so that I can get started. My fee is based on transcribing eight census returns for a single family. And of course, if you have fewer than eight census returns, my fee will be reduced accordingly.
Have you finally found a key record for your ancestor only to discover it’s written in a language you cannot read? If the record is in French, German or Swedish, I’ll abstract the pertinent genealogical details for you and transcribe them in English. Although I can read records written in these languages, I must clarify that I cannot converse in any of these languages. If you haven’t yet found a record, and need help researching in available French, German and Swedish online records, my fee will be increased to $25 per record. I’ll work with birth, marriage, death and census records.
That troublesome foreign language document can be send to me digitally, and I'll tackle it. My fee is based on abstracting one record.
Have you conducted all the research for your family, yet are loathe to face the task of molding it into something presentable with notes and citations clearly accounting for your conclusions and the sources from which they were drawn? I'll take the burden of your hands, and shape your family's genealogy into one of my proprietary family group sheet designs which have at-a-glance delivery of key information, easy for all to read and comprehend. We can vary the information you'd like shown as well—perhaps you'd like, for example, to show the heritage of ancestors! I'll also account for every detail on a family group sheet with endnotes that include source citations and additional explanatory notes. My fee, which is per family group sheet, includes preparatory analysis of your work, formatting, citation preparation, and academic writing. And of course, if you're simply after some attractive, clean Family Group Sheets and have no need for endnotes and citations, my fee will be reduced to $25 per group sheet.
First, I'll forward one of my family group sheet designs for you to select from. Following that, I'll need all of the research that you've conducted for one family digitally forwarded to me.
Thoughtful, friendly, and very insightful in a complicated situation! Thank you Susan!
✔ A Research Report complete with all research findings, a summary and analysis of the findings, and all research supported by full academic source citations in the form of endnotes.
The timing of all genealogy projects and assignments varies by the nature and scale of the work involved in addition to many other variables, and sometimes the time necessary to complete a project cannot be anticipated with precision. However, individual tasks such as those offered through my fixed fee services can usually be completed within a week or less, excepting my Single Surname Study service.
I’m a staunch adherent of the Board for Certification of Genealogists’ Code of Ethics and Standards—without it, there would be no guidelines for conducting professional research everyone can take pride in.