Family histories
Get the celebrity treatment and have an expert genealogist/historian bring your family history to life in your own ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ journey. This is Your Story by WHB.
Capture Your Story in an interactive story hub or a stunning family history book – for your kids, grandkids and generations to come.
You don’t need to be a celebrity to find your roots. We all have a story in us. It could be an age-old family mystery or a history-changer you never knew. Not just DNA or dates on a tree; Your Story is an epic peopled by your own flesh and blood, one filled with eternal meaning for you and your family.
Enter William Hastings Burke. He has spent 25+ years uncovering history’s biggest stories, through history books, journalism and TV documentaries, including for the BBC and the History Channel. Now a pro genealogist for the biggest ancestry platforms, he can both dig deep into your roots and frame the facts into one coherent narrative. All in your own interactive story hub or professionally published family history book.
Capture your family histories on the page or in your own interactive story hub.
YOUR STORY - INTERACTIVE
Journey into your family’s origins, walk in their footsteps and uncover their stories in your own mini ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ episode. Choose the Lite Package when you already have a solid family tree, or go for the Complete Package when starting from scratch.
Starting from as low as $1000
- Complete Package: 35 hours, including 20 hours of pro genealogical research
- Lite Package: 25 hours, including 10 hours of pro genealogical research
- Interactive story hub: complete family chronicle, maps, family charts, images, original records, footnotes and more.
- Bespoke podcast diving into your family’s story. Listen to a demo here!
- Password-protected or unlisted page to share with family, friends or on the Socials.
YOUR STORY - ON THE PAGE
Watch your past jump off the page with your own family history book – professionally written, referenced and published with a stunning coffee-table book design. Choose the Lite Package when you already have a solid family tree or the Complete Package when starting from scratch.
Starting from as low as $1400 (+ printing)
- Complete Package: 50 hours, including 20 hours of pro genealogical research
- Lite Package: 40 hours, including 10 hours of pro genealogical research
- Your Story Book: premium hardback with matte finish, quality 150gsm silk paper & vibrant image prints. Order as many copies as you want!
- Digital Book: share with family and friends around the globe
- Bespoke podcast diving into your family’s story. Listen to a demo here!
Make it a combo or a once-in-a-lifetime gift.
YOUR STORY - COMBO
Get the complete experience. Journey back in time to your family’s origins with Your Story – Interactive, while also preserving your family’s story for generations to come with Your Story – On the Page.
All for just an extra $250 with any Complete Package
- Combo Package: 60 hours, including 20 hours of pro genealogical research
- Interactive story hub: complete family chronicle, maps, family charts, images, original records, footnotes and more.
- Your Story Book: premium hardback with matte finish, quality 150gsm silk paper & vibrant image prints. Order multiple copies!
- Digital Your Story Book: share with family and friends around the globe
- Bespoke podcast diving into your family’s story. Listen to a demo here!
YOUR STORY - GIFT CARDS
Big occasion coming up, and you’re looking to make a life-long impression? Anniversary, 50th Birthday or a big Christmas? Select a gift package and treat your special someone to a gift like no other.
Starting from as low as $300
- Your Story - Interactive: Choose Lite - 25 hours, including 10 hours of research, or Complete - 35 hours, including 20 hours of research
- Your Story - On the Page: Choose Lite - 40 hours, including 10 hours of research, or Complete - 50 hours, including 20 hours of research
- Your Story - Combo: Family History Book + Interactive Story Hub - 60 hours, including 20 hours of pro genealogical research.
- Pro Genealogy Package: 5, 10 or 20-hour packages of pro genealogical research on a research area of your choice
- Personalized message add any message you want on a digital or printed card delivered to your giftee.
Your Story Pod
Every Your Story package comes with your very own custom audio podcast. Here, we unpack your family history project into bite-size pieces, ready to be consumed on the go. Perfect for the younger members of your family. Choose to have it set to private or unlisted to share it with friends and family.
Hit play and listen to this demo family histories podcast on The Mighty McCrimmons.
Your Stories
uncovered & delivered by whb
FEATURED YOUR STORY 🇬🇧 🇺🇸
Y-DNA analysis found the missing link to the famous McCrimmon piping family. An epic story travelling from Jacobite Scotland to Civil War America.
MYHERITAGE COLAB 🇨🇦 🇮🇱 🇵🇱
With only a few clues and a loose DNA match, MyHeritage and William teamed up to uncover Elana’s biological father and a whole new family in Poland.
FEATURED YOUR STORY 🇩🇪 🇵🇱 🇺🇸
Deep archival/genealogical research unearthed a tobacco empire in East Prussia. A classic rags-to-riches story before war and tragedy sunk the empire.
MYHERITAGE COLAB 🇬🇧
Working with MyHeritage, William dug into the roots of British TV personality Richard Arnold and uncovered a family mystery buried in his surname.
SPECIAL PROJET 🇬🇧
William helped JC journalist, Lianne Kolirin, uncover her Polish-Jewish family history from the ashes of the Holocaust, along with long-lost relatives.
Home Story
A history of your house and those who made it a home.
Welcome to Home Story by WHB.
Capture your bespoke house histories in print or take a virtual stroll with your own interactive house history hub.
Know how
What journey do you want to take?
Tell the story you know so far and what you would like to discover.
What’s the big family mystery? What family line has always intrigued you? Who’s the famous ancestor that Grandma always talked about? Is a big occasion coming up and you want to treat a special someone to a gift like no other?
To get the ball rolling, we just need a starting point. Pass on any old family charts, records at hand or just the details of a known ancestor.
Choose your story
Every Your Story project comes with free Exploratory Research. This gives you or your giftee a better idea of where to focus and what to expect.
We’ll look into your roots to highlight any interesting family lines, ancestors or general areas of interest. We’ll then come back to you with options. Your feedback will determine the shape and look of your interactive Story Hub or family histories book.
This is Your Story. You call the shots. We’ll keep you posted throughout the whole process.
Time to get to work.
After payment, we’ll dig deeper into the records and piece together the facts behind your family’s narrative, as well as prepare all the maps, charts and images. Depending on your project brief, this could include:
- Extending your family tree and discovering new ancestors/origins
- Uncovering links to notable figures in history
- Building profiles of certain ancestors and the wider history around them
- Embedding your ancestors and notable events in time and place
The big day has come. The answers to your past are here!
Sit back and watch your family history come to life in your own interactive story hub or stunning ancestry book.
For Your Story – Interactive projects, you’ll receive a custom link to your Story Hub to share with family, friends or the world. You can also have your page password-protected.
For Your Story – On the Page projects, you’ll receive a digital proof before printing. Select the quantity and we’ll send out your books via courier anywhere in the world. You can always order more copies later on. Tip: The greater the quantity, the cheaper each copy will be.
So ...
What's your story?
Start drafting yours today
Get started
with a free project assessment
Got any questions?
William's story...
William Hastings Burke brought the story of anti-Nazi crusader Albert Goering to the world in his book Thirty Four – which is set to be made into a feature film. Over 20+ years, he has cracked other big cases in history, through journalism and TV to special cold-case projects for the biggest ancestry platforms. Whenever there’s a case too difficult, they turn to William.
