Terms & Conditions

By commissioning research from the family tree genie, you agree to these terms and conditions.

Payment terms are 14 days from receipt of invoice and completed project research. Please note no report will be released without full payment, neither will further work be carried out whilst monies are outstanding.

A free assessment is taken before I commence a project to confirm that the research is possible. I will report back to the client my findings and proceed with the number of hours the client and I have agreed upon. I will discuss with the client if they have had any previous research undertaken in order to prevent them paying for any duplicate work and ask them to supply me with the results, along with copies of any documents already obtained.  I will discuss all charges and potential number of hours needed before I begin any work.

Research is commissioned at an agreed budget and this is based on my hourly rate (currently £20 per hour) or a set amount agreed by both parties, which will be adhered to. Research beyond that agreed will not be undertaken without discussion and permission from the client.

Work is commissioned on receipt of the 50% deposit of the agreed total.  The deposit will be fully deducted from the final total.

Any costs outside of research time will be charged separately, these costs may include purchase of registration documents from the General Registry Office or copying, printing and postage of archive documents. All costs will be agreed with the client before purchase.

I can only undertake research where records exist and are available, I cannot guarantee that these records will be accurate or legible. 

I cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies in the information supplied by the client.

Research data is held in confidence and will only be provided to the client commissioning the research.

The completed research which is supplied to the client consists of a PDF computer drawn pedigree tree and a comprehensive narrative report of my research along with all other documents that were available. The reports and trees can be printed off by the client, and if you are in the UK I can print the documents and post the completed work to you myself, this would need to be requested by the client in advance and would be available at and an additional cost.

The research report and copies of documents obtained are for personal use only and must not be reproduced in any way for commercial purposes. Any reports and charts produced by thefamilytreegenie are the property of D L Jefford. I take a great deal of pride in my research, so please check your PDF report and if there is an error or omission that is my fault, I will do my best to rectify this.

The time from commissioning to completion is typically three months or more, depending on the scale of the project. Smaller projects can be completed sooner, so please discuss your requirements in advance. 

I accept payment through PayPal, Bank draft or a direct payment into my bank account. Any fees incurred will be paid in full by the client. If the deposit is not received by the agreed date the completion date of the research may change.

Data provided by you or generated during my research will not be passed on to any third party.

I hold your personal information provided by you to communicate about your family research request and to process payment for your product. Information will be held on a computer secured with a password and in paper form.

All information will be held for as long as necessary to complete your research. It will be deleted on request by you or after a period of 5 years whichever is less.

I reserve the right to cancel research for a client at any time, and refund any monies paid less fees accrued to date.

If the client decides to cancel after research has started, any work already undertaken will be calculated and must be paid in full by the client. In addition, any documents purchased will also be charged for. 

Family history tracing is not an exact science.

Your ancestors may have left relatively little impression on past historical records for any number of reasons. When the detailed censuses where introduced many people in the 19th century, for example, took steps to ‘avoid’ the census enumerators, whilst others were away from home on the night of the census and can therefore prove extremely elusive to track down.

Also, many historical records are difficult to read due to illegible handwriting, they have faded over time, multiple variations of surname spellings or have been transcribed inaccurately, making the genealogist’s task even more difficult.

For these reasons every project is vulnerable to the occasional inaccuracy, the family tree genie will make every reasonable effort where possible to verify findings against more than one source. While the quality of my research is to a high standard, the family tree genie cannot guarantee the accuracy of the findings where evidence is unreliable or contradicts.