Forensic Genealogy USA

When the focus of your search is the UK and Ireland, we are the obvious choice. No other British company offers a similar coverage of locally-based researchers, each with an intimate knowledge of their neighborhood’s archives and history. These are people on the ground, experienced probate genealogists who move seamlessly from record office to doorstep, who will talk directly to the friends, neighbors and relatives of the person you’re looking for.

We are confident that our team of probate researchers is the best in the UK today. We know how to establish cast-iron evidence of kinship. We know how to find missing heirs.

In addition to our expertise, we offer you peace of mind.

In an industry awash with opportunists and profiteers, nothing is more important to us than our reputation. Anglia Research is a British family business founded in the 1970s on the values of accuracy, decency, confidentiality and - above all - integrity.

We make sure that our staff have the best possible resources at their fingertips. Our in-house library of over 8,000 volumes includes many rare and sought-after directories. These are the yell.coms of the Victorian, Edwardian and wartime eras, capable of transforming a fruitless search into a eureka moment.

In addition to traditional, paper-based resources, we have built, and continually extend and refine, our in-house databases so that cases can sometimes be solved with a few taps on a keyboard.

Ultimately, however, our best resource is our people. Our team extends well beyond our offices in the south-east and north-west, providing feet on the ground across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

We employ some of the most highly qualified genealogists in the UK - members of AGRA, ASGRA and AGI - and our in-house training and open-doors policy means that their knowledge and expertise is continually passed on to younger colleagues. Quite simply, our team is the best.

Our fees are flexible and negotiated upfront, so that they meet the needs of your particular case.

We offer fixed fee, hourly rate and contingency models. Whichever payment model you choose, we guarantee clarity and transparency so that you are never surprised by additional charges.

We offer all our clients a free initial assessment: contact us and we will consider your case and the work needed to resolve it. Within 24 hours we will advise you on the likely costs and the most affordable fee structure.

With the greatest respect, the Internet doesn’t have legs. It can’t knock on doors, pull an old family Bible from a shelf, or consult a long-forgotten newspaper in a specialist archive.

And while it’s true that nowadays there is a wealth of genealogical information available online, this is just the tip of the archival iceberg. In Britain, as elsewhere, many records are still on paper, scattered in different repositories across the country.

Furthermore, it’s worth remembering that much of the data uploaded to the Internet has been transcribed by hand and is subject to human error. When you want to prove someone’s legal right to an inheritance, you need to be prepared to examine original documents or certified copies - and you need to be able to cast your net much further than the resources available online.

Similarly, there is no quick and easy substitute for the detailed knowledge of British social history required to crack the most complex cases. Without a solid understanding of the forces that led people to move from one area to another, it’s impossible to know where someone is likely to resurface once they have vanished from the historical record.

In the USA, we work for attorneys, trust companies and estate administrators, as well as other heir hunting firms who need to call upon our particularly British expertise.

We specialize in:

• missing heir location
• document procurement
• family tree verification
• tracing property ownership
• media consultancy.

We are more than just heir hunters. We are people finders. We can trace missing trustees, shareholders, copyright holders, title holders, the star of a long-forgotten film or the anonymous subject of an iconic wartime photograph.

Whatever the reason for your search, we can help.

All cases passed to us remain the property of the referrer and any information exchanged is covered by our standard confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement.

We aim to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with our US counterparts. This is why we maintain a directory of American forensic genealogists on our website: by publicizing your business, we hope to indicate that we do not intend to compete with you.

Yes. We liaise with over 200 agents worldwide and, given the frequent historic migrations of Eastern Europeans into the UK (and sometimes onwards to the US), we maintain particularly close links with colleagues throughout Europe. With our associate offices in Eastern Europe we can boast an enviable success rate, e.g. even when the trail leads back through the Jewish immigration of the 1880s and 1890s.

Our reach is truly international. Other branches of your target family may have migrated to just about anywhere in the world. We regularly trace and piece together disparate families whose various members ended up in every corner of the globe.

We can set to work immediately. We pride ourselves on our ability to prioritize a complex caseload, and work fast without compromising accuracy.