What's your story?

Every research project begins with a chat to answer the what and why. What do you know so far? What documents can you share – e.g., a family tree? What do you want to find out? Is there some big family mystery or a missing gap in your family history? What are your goals and expectations?

From there, we’ll move into exploration. We’ll review the information at hand and conduct some preliminary research into a few figures or family lines. At the end, you will be given an exploration report with research options to help you decide in which direction you want to take the project – or whether you want to commit to a full project.

Based on your feedback, we will draft up a project brief for the whole project, which will cover the timeline, estimated research hours, objectives, the areas of focus and the delivery method: whether you would like your Web Documentary publicly available on the Internet or password protected.

We’ll get to work in digging through the archives and assembling the facts into one coherent narrative – that is, Your Story.

Upon completion, you’ll receive a link to your own interactive Web Documentary, complete with a narrative of the research results, maps, an abridged family tree, images and contextual information. Depending on your shared preferences, it will be either publicly available or password protected.

If you have any other questions, feel free to get in contact with us here. Or if you’re looking for some research help on any other project, head over to our Custom Research page.

Every research project begins with a chat to answer the what and why. What do you know so far? What documents can you share – e.g., a family tree? What do you want to find out? Is there some big family mystery or a missing gap in your family history? What are your goals and expectations?

From there, we’ll move into exploration. We’ll review the information at hand and conduct some preliminary research into a few figures or family lines. At the end, you will be given an exploration report with research options to help you decide in which direction you want to take the project – or whether you want to commit to a full project.

Based on your feedback, we will draft up a project brief for the whole project, which will cover the timeline, estimated research hours, objectives, the areas of focus and the delivery method: whether you would like your Web Documentary publicly available on the Internet or password protected.

We’ll get to work in digging through the archives and assembling the facts into one coherent narrative – that is, Your Story.

Upon completion, you’ll receive a link to your own interactive Web Documentary, complete with a narrative of the research results, maps, an abridged family tree, images and contextual information. Depending on your shared preferences, it will be either publicly available or password protected.

If you have any other questions, feel free to get in contact with us here. Or if you’re looking for some research help on any other project, head over to our Custom Research page.

Your Story by WHB is just one service offered by WHB Research, which specialises in custom research projects, everything from research support for TV & Film to market research. We have got you covered, even if you need to uncover only one identity or detail in your family history. In these cases, you will be quoted and billed based on a standard hourly rate. Just make the request when you submit your enquiry. Alternatively, feel free to check out our Custom Research page.

Research can sometimes be a case of: how long is a piece of string? If we don’t obey the early warning signs, we can work away for days, weeks or even months with little results to show. That’s why we always start with an exploration package of 5 research hours. This will not only save you from chasing lost causes and money but help us to outline the brief, timeline and next steps. At the end, you will be given an exploration report to help you decide in which direction you want to take the project – or whether you want to commit to a full project. Most importantly, this step will determine the project brief for the whole project. This way, we’ll all be on the same page.

It depends on you and where you want to take your story. But the cost is generally affected by the amount of research hours involved and if need be, a few other external costs, such as archive retrieval, translation or travel costs. That’s why we’ve tried to make pricing as simple and flexible as possible with our research packages. They include:

Exploration Package | 5 hours with approximately a 30% discount on the base hourly rate*
Here, we review the information at hand and dig around a bit to explore your options: what family line or historical figure looks interesting? This will not only prevent us from chasing any lost causes but also determine the scope and timeline for the project, as well as crystalise all expectations. At the end, you will be given an exploration report to help you decide in which direction you want to take the project. Most importantly, this step will determine the project brief for the whole project.

YS Package | 25 hours at the base hourly rate*
The project begins. We gather all the facts and assemble them into one coherent narrative. Plus, the package includes your own interactive Web Documentary, complete with a narrative of the research results, maps, an abridged family tree, images and contextual information.

Top-up Package | 10 hours with approximately a 20% discount on the base hourly rate*
Sometimes we can come across twists in the narrative that warrant further research and in this case, you can choose to extend the project with a top-up.

*The hourly base rate and other pricing details will be outlined during the quoting process.

You will be invoiced for each package, which can be paid by a standard bank transfer in your local currency. That’s right. No matter if you’re based in the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia or in the EU, you’ll pay in your local currency without any extra transfer or foreign fees on what you usually pay.

A few factors are at play here, such as the specifics of the project (every project is unique) and our project queue at the time. But generally the timescale mirrors the packages that you select, e.g., 5 hours for the Exploration Project, 25 hours for the YS Package (plus extra time for design and presentation of the Web Documentary) and 10 hours for any Top-up Packages. Don’t worry, you will receive a concrete timeline with the project brief.

Yes, indeed. In fact, that’s how Your Story started. The first project was delivered as a surprise gift for a 50th birthday. Since then, it’s become a popular choice. There’s no better way to mark a big birthday or milestone of loved ones than handing them a piece of their history.

The gift card can be emailed directly to the recipient with a link to the project or printed up as a physical copy.

Sure. This is custom research and just like the scope of the research, you can customise the presentation of the results however you would like. That could be a standard report or even a mini book. Just make the request during the briefing process and billing can be carried out at a standard hourly rate.