How it works
From a name to a volume.
You type a surname — nothing else. Our engine assembles the documented history of that name from the public record and hands it back as a volume you can read in minutes. This page is the whole process, start to finish.
The method
Three steps, and none of them is guesswork.
- You give us one thing A surname. No account to open, no family tree to fill in, no relatives to name and no payment to see the first part. The volume is about the name, so the name is all it needs.
- We assemble it from the record Census surname files, printed and digitised archives, dated newspaper pages, heraldic registers and migration records — read by an engine we built and run ourselves, not bought in from a third party.
- Every figure carries its source Each number and each claim arrives beside the archive it was drawn from, so you can go and check any of it yourself. That is the point of the whole exercise.
Which figure comes from which archive is set out in How Your Report Is Made. What a volume is and is not is on About us.
After you pay
What arrives, and when.
The volume
Minutes
It opens in your browser as soon as the payment clears, and the PDF is yours to download and keep. Nothing is posted, nothing expires, and you can come back to it from My Reports whenever you want.
The pieces
7 to 10 business days, plus delivery
Each one is made to order from the arms in your volume, which is why it takes time. At checkout you choose between a free standard service, 7 to 12 business days, or a faster paid option, 5 to 8. If we are going to be late, we email you before the date passes.
If it is not right
You are not stuck with it.
A digital volume has thirty days, no questions asked — “it wasn’t what I expected” is a valid reason and it is covered. A physical piece can be cancelled within twelve hours, because it goes into production quickly; we say that before you pay, not after. And where the ninety-day badge was shown on the page you bought from, ninety days is your window for that order.
Start with a surname.
The first part costs nothing. You decide about the volume once you have seen what the record holds.