Where we come from.

Usually, yes. We start with the American records that tend to name the village: naturalization papers, passenger lists, church records, obituaries. The free Roots Check tells you which of them exist for your ancestor. If none of them names the village, we tell you so before you order anything.

No. A name, a place and a rough year are enough to start. Anything in drawers helps: naturalization papers, a family Bible, letters from the old country, a confirmation certificate, photos with writing on the back, an obituary.

The Roots Check tells you beforehand what survives for your places. Some books burned in the wars, some are only in the local archive. If the records still end earlier than expected, we tell you, with the books and years we read. And if we find less than we promise, you get your money back (money-back promise).

Then One Question usually fits, for example who the parents were of the ancestor where your tree ends. If the search is bigger, say because the family moved a lot, we suggest One Person. Put the link to your tree on Ancestry, FamilySearch or MyHeritage into the Roots Check, so we see where you are and don't search twice. You can e-mail us a GEDCOM file afterwards. Both come with the money-back promise.

Yes. Many American families lost touch with the relatives who stayed in Germany, Austria or further east, and don't know whether there are descendants there today. We follow the family through church books and civil registers, then through address books, death notices and other public sources up to the present. If we find living relatives, we tell you their names and roughly where they live, and write to them for you. If they would like contact, we put you in touch; if someone would rather not, we respect that. This is a One Person search at a fixed price, with the money-back promise.

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That depends on where the books are: what is online goes faster than a request to an archive. Your offer states the date by which you will have everything. If a date matters to you, mention it in the Roots Check.

We are a small business in Finland and charge in euros. When you pay by card, your bank converts the amount into dollars at its rate; some banks add a fee for payments abroad.

Language models read old handwriting for us, search archive holdings and write transcriptions. Every key statement is checked against the original. Your report says what each statement rests on.

Only fees that archives or registry offices charge for certificates we order. We pass them on at cost and order only with your OK.

We use your details and documents only for your case. The AI services we work with may not use them for training. We search for living relatives only when you ask us to, and we pass on their address or phone number only with their consent. You can have your data deleted at any time. As an EU business we follow the EU's data protection law (GDPR), wherever you live. More in our privacy policy.

All where records survive. Families who came to America as “German” or “Austrian” often trace back to Silesia, Pomerania, Posen, Bohemia, Galicia, the Banat, Hungary or the German villages in Russia, some to Alsace, Switzerland or Luxembourg. Language and script are no obstacle, from old German handwriting to Latin, Polish, Hungarian or Russian, and you get everything in English. Whether anything survives for your places, the Roots Check tells you.