How much does a family history book cost?
It's one of the first things people ask us, and it deserves a straight answer. A family history book can cost very little if you research and write it yourself, or a few thousand dollars if you hire someone to do the research, the writing and the printing. Where a book lands depends mostly on how much research it needs. Below is what drives the price, what you can do for free, how to compare quotes fairly, and what our own books cost.
What you're paying for
Most of the cost of a researched family history is time. Finding a record can be quick. Finding the right record, reading the old handwriting, checking it against two others and deciding what it proves takes hours, and a book is built from hundreds of those small decisions.
The Association of Professional Genealogists, a professional organization for people who do this work, says most professional genealogists charge an hourly rate for research. It puts the range at $30 to $40 an hour up to well over $200 an hour, depending on experience, location, the kind of project, demand and time limits. For some well-defined projects, it says, a genealogist may quote a flat rate instead. Most also charge for certain expenses, such as photocopies, some travel costs and postage, and the Association says to expect a retainer in most cases.
Writing and design take time too. Turning research notes into chapters a family will want to read, placing the photographs and charts, and preparing the pages for a printer are separate jobs from the research, and they show up in the price.
What makes one book cost more than another
How far back you go. Every generation back doubles the number of direct ancestors, from two parents to four grandparents to eight great-grandparents. The records also tend to get thinner and harder to read the further back you look, so each step back usually costs more than the one before.
How many family lines. A book about one couple is a much smaller job than a book that follows all four of your grandparents' families. In the fictional sample book we made to show how our books work, John Q. Doe's tree reaches eight great-grandparents from three countries. Tracing all of those lines takes far longer than telling the story of a single pair.
Records in another country or language. Once a line crosses an ocean, the records sit in other archives, in other handwriting and often in another language. When the Association of Professional Genealogists lists what to look for in a researcher, foreign language skills are among the specialties it names. Many of those records can now be read online. Some can't, and getting them can mean paying for a request by mail or for a researcher on the spot.
Hard questions. A name that changed, a record that burned, two men with the same name in the same town. These take longer to untangle, and a good researcher will tell you at the start when a question might not have an answer.
Printing and copies. A printed hardcover costs more than a digital file, and each extra copy for a brother, sister or cousin adds to the total.
Doing it yourself
You can do a great deal on your own for very little money, and plenty of people enjoy every hour of it. The real cost is your time.
Some of the best tools are free. FamilySearch is provided free of charge to everyone by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it has only one kind of account, a free one. The National Archives released the 1950 census on April 1, 2022, and anyone can search it free at 1950census.archives.gov.
Some things do cost money. Certified copies of birth, marriage and death certificates come from each state's vital records office, because the federal government doesn't issue them. The CDC keeps a list of where to write in every state, and it notes that all fees are subject to change, with a phone number for checking the current one. Some federal immigration files, such as the naturalization certificate files from 1906 to 1956, are requested through the USCIS Genealogy Program, which charges a fee set out on its fee schedule. If you want a printed book at the end, you'll pay for printing as well.
What doing it yourself asks for most is hours, often a great many evenings of them. If you love the hunt, those hours are the fun part, and our free Family Story Starter is a gentle way to begin. If you'd rather spend those evenings reading the finished story, that's when hiring help makes sense.
Hiring help and comparing quotes
If you hire, you'll find everyone from researchers who bill by the hour to firms that deliver a finished book. Quotes are hard to compare unless you know what each one includes, so it helps to ask everyone the same questions.
The Association of Professional Genealogists suggests that before you sign anything or send a retainer, you agree on the goals of the project, the hours, the fees, the time frame, the final product, copyright and publication rights, and how you'll stay in touch. It says it's reasonable to ask for a written agreement, and it suggests asking to see examples of earlier work. A few more questions we'd ask in your place:
Is the price a fixed quote, or an hourly estimate that could grow?
Are expenses such as record fees or a local researcher included?
Will every fact be cited to its source, so someone can check it later?
Will I read a draft before anything is printed, and how many rounds of changes come with it?
How many printed copies are included, and what does an extra one cost?
The National Archives keeps lists of independent researchers for hire. It's careful to say that being on the list isn't an endorsement of anyone's work, and that the extent and cost of the work are a private arrangement between you and the researcher. That's one more reason to get everything in writing.
What our books cost
We'd rather you know our prices before you call. These are exactly as they appear on Books & Pricing. The prices are starting points. After our free consultation, we send you a written fixed quote within two business days, so there are no surprises.
The Ancestor Portrait, starting at $450. The story of a single ancestor or couple, told in a short illustrated biography. It has 12 to 20 pages of researched narrative, up to 15 photographs and documents, notes and full source citations, and comes with one hardcover copy and a digital edition.
The Family Heritage Book, starting at $1,500. One or two family lines traced back four generations, written as a single volume. It has 80 to 120 pages with chapter-end notes, a four-generation pedigree chart and up to 40 photographs and documents, and comes with two hardcover copies and a digital edition.
The Heirloom Collection, starting at $2,800. Your family traced as far back as the records allow, often to the old country, in a three-volume set of Volume I Story, Volume II Family Record and Volume III Proof Records. Record transcriptions and translations are included, with one shared index across all three volumes, and it comes as one hardcover set of three books and a digital edition.
Each of the three takes about 4 to 6 weeks of research and writing. After that, your draft review, the design and proof, and printing and delivery take about 3 to 4 weeks more.
With every book you get a free 30-minute consultation and a fixed quote before we begin, a short progress update every two weeks, the full draft to read before anything is printed with two rounds of revisions, and every fact cited to the record it came from.
A few add-ons can change the total. An additional generation of research and writing added to a Heritage Book is from $600. Extra hardcover copies for children, siblings or cousins are from $65 each, ordered with your book or any time after. A large-format, frameable custom pedigree chart is from $150. The Interactive Family Archive, a private, searchable online version of your book with a clickable family tree, is from $750.
If a key record exists only in a local archive, we'll arrange a request or a local record retriever and include that cost in your quote before any work begins.
Payment is split into three parts, 50% when you sign, 25% when you approve the draft (or one week after we send it, whichever comes first), and 25% before printing. You can follow each stage on How It Works. If the book is a present, our gift certificate uses the same books, prices and terms, and every invoice goes to the giver, never the person receiving it.
Which way is right for you
If you have the time and enjoy a puzzle, start on your own, and write down where every fact came from as you go. If you'd like the finished story in your hands, or the trail runs into old records in another language, help may be worth the cost. Either way, look at a sample before you decide. Our Sample Pages show how our books are laid out, using a fictional family to protect everyone's privacy.
Which branch of your family would you most like to know more about? We'd love to hear about it.
If you'd like a real number for your own family, a free 30-minute consultation is the way to get one. We'll talk about what you already know and who the book is for, and within two business days we'll send a written fixed quote. There's no obligation until you sign.
