A last-minute gift that isn’t a gift card
It happens to most of us. The list is nearly done, the wrapping paper is out, and there's one name left, usually the person who's hardest to shop for. A gift card would solve it, but you both know what a gift card says. It says you ran out of time.
There's another way to give something late in December that doesn't feel late at all. Our family history gift certificate is a PDF you print at home. Nothing has to ship, so no carrier deadline applies, and it opens into a book about their own family.
How it works
The steps are the same ones on our gift page.
A free call with you. Thirty minutes on the phone or by video. Tell us who the gift is for and what you know about the family, even if it's only a few names.
A fixed quote. We send a written fixed quote within two business days, for any of our three books.
Your certificate. You pay the full price, or 50% now and the rest during their project. Every invoice comes to you, never to them. Then we email a printable certificate with their name, the book and your own message on it.
Their turn. After the holidays, they have their own free 30-minute call, and we begin.
The dates, plainly
The last day to give a certificate this Christmas is Monday 21 December, the last day for the call. For it to arrive in time, the first invoice (the full price or the 50% payment) needs to be paid by Tuesday 22 December, and we'll email the certificate by Wednesday 23 December. Since you print it yourself, it's ready the moment it lands in your inbox, right up to Christmas Eve.
If you'd hoped to put the finished book itself under the tree, that needs a talk with us by 30 October, because a book takes about 7 to 10 weeks from start to finish. After that, the certificate is the gift, and the research starts in the new year.
Making it feel like a gift
A certificate is easy to make special. It looks best printed on heavy card stock and folded in half, like a greeting card. A few ideas for wrapping it:
Tuck it inside an old family photograph album, at the page with the oldest picture.
Put it in a small box with one framed photograph of their parents or grandparents.
Slip it into a card with a few lines about why you chose it.
The message on the certificate is yours to write, up to 25 words. Something simple works best, such as the name of the grandparent you most want them to find, or a line about the stories they've always told.
What they'll receive in the new year
When your gift's recipient is ready, they get in touch and have their own free call. We'll hear what they remember, which family lines matter most and who the book is for. The certificate has no expiration date, so there's no rush.
Then we research their family in the original records, such as parish registers, census pages and passenger lists. That takes about 4 to 6 weeks of research and writing, followed by about 3 to 4 weeks for the draft review, the design and proof, and printing and delivery. Along the way they'll hear from us every two weeks. They read the full draft before anything is printed, with two rounds of revisions, and every fact in the book is cited to the record it came from.
You can see what the finished pages look like in our Sample Pages, which follow our fictional sample family, the Does, back through four generations.
Choosing a book
The Ancestor Portrait, from $450, is the story of a single ancestor or couple, 12 to 20 pages with one hardcover copy and a digital edition.
The Family Heritage Book, from $1,500, traces one or two family lines back four generations in 80 to 120 pages, with two hardcover copies.
The Heirloom Collection, from $2,800, follows the family as far back as the records allow, often to the old country, in a three-volume set.
Extra hardcover copies for brothers, sisters or cousins are from $65 each, with the book or any time after. The full details are on Books & Pricing. If you're not sure which fits, that's what the first call is for.
If you'd like something to open on the day too
A certificate pairs well with a small thing to unwrap. Our free guide, The Family Story Starter, prints at home too. Its questions are a good way to get the family talking over Christmas dinner, and the answers give the research a head start in January.
Who's the hardest person on your list this year? We'd love to hear about them, and to help if we can.
A free 30-minute call is the easiest place to start, and there's no obligation.
