What We Do
Genealogical Research
To date, we have helped people find family in each of the countries listed below. We’d love to help you find yours, too.
Austria Hungary Slovakia
Belgium Italy Sweden
Chile Lithuania Ukraine
Czechia Netherlands United Kingdom
Germany Poland United States
Romania
We are here to help you with the next step in finding your family, whether it is genealogical or location research.
Start with a diagnostic search to receive an overview of the kind of information that may be available for your family. Then explore your specific areas of interest with additional research.
We also submit inquiries to Holocaust archives on behalf of persons whose family members were persecuted in the Shoah.
If you have questions about any of these services, please feel free to contact us.
Our Research Specialists
Loretta (Lorrie) Lea Niebur, PhD
Lorrie specializes in Central and Eastern European records, with a particular focus on Polish, Ukrainian, and Holocaust research.
Elizabeth (Lisa) Niebur Lee
Lisa specializes in researching in the United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, and Denmark.
Diagnostic Search—10 Hours
We always perform a diagnostic search for our clients before doing any additional, in-depth research (other than a Holocaust Archive Inquiry Submission or Historical/Culteral/Image Research).
An Initial Diagnostic Search is designed to discover what information may be reasonably available for further exploration. It is not meant to be an exhaustive search.
It may verify, support, or extend the genealogical or location information that you bring to us. It may also verify the absence of readily available records.
Its focus may be on either genealogical or location information, or a combination of both. Sources for the two types of searches often overlap.
A Diagnostic Search surveys major online, indexed record repositories for the persons or families identified in the research plan that we agree upon with you. It will also look for readily available information to either confirm or find locations of family events and residences.
It is possible that a Diagnostic Search will confirm that the information you desire about your family is not readily available at this time.
Diagnostic Searches typically consist of 10 hours of research.
You will receive a detailed research log documenting our work, as well as research notes and next steps that you can take in your research.
Price: $750 paid prior to beginning research.
Genealogical Research Block—10 hours
Focus may be on names, dates, relationships, and locations of your family members
Any number of research blocks may be purchased after one of our diagnostic searches has been performed
After each 10-hour block, you will receive a detailed research log documenting our work, as well as research notes and next steps that you can take in your research
Price: $750 paid prior to beginning research
For ongoing projects, research will address your priorities and time will be invoiced monthly at $75/hour. Research logs and notes will be provided at key points in your research plan.
Historical/Cultural/Image Research Block—5 hours
Focus on location and/or image research
No diagnostic search is necessary
You will receive information about the location and/or images with appropriate copyright for you to use in your own work or in a book we create for you
Price: $375 paid prior to beginning research
For ongoing projects, time will be invoiced monthly at $75/hour.
Holocaust Archive Inquiry Submission
This service is for persons who have family members who were persecuted in the Shoa and for whom they wish to find additional information. Inquiries often uncover information that can be found in no other way, as discussed in our Finding Shoah Answers blog.
Our service consists of us submitting inquiries to three major Holocaust archives (these are not online family trees) on your behalf: Arolsen Archives, Yad Vashem (English archives), and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
You provide us with whatever information you have, and we submit that material to the archives.
You may also submit your inquiries the archives yourself, without our help and without charge, if you wish.
It is best, although not necessary, to submit these inquiries many months prior to beginning a book or research project with us, for it often takes 6 months or more to receive a reply to an inquiry.
It is important to submit inquiries, in addition to searching the archives' online records, because archives have only a portion of their records posted online. Some records are available only to researchers at the archive.
The information made available in an inquiry response can save many, many hours of our research time and significant cost to you. Often that information is only available through an inquiry to that archive, or a physical, in-person search of their records.
If you have family members who were caught up in the Shoa, an archive inquiry is a very important step in finding your family's information. You will receive the same results whether you make the inquiry or we do. What is important is that you seek out this information, one way or the other.
We offer this service independently of any of our other services. We do not require a diagnostic search prior to submitting inquiries for you. You may purchase this service separately from any others that we offer with no further obligation.
Our charge is $75 per hour to submit your inquiries to as many or as few archives as you wish.
