What did the client ask for?
My client’s family had some medals and a couple of official documents from World War I that belonged to his great grandfather. My client believed that this gentleman had served in the army during this period but knew nothing more. Could I dig further and find out what I could about him and also explain what his medals were for?
What I needed from the client
Luckily the most important piece of information that I was going to need was on the documents – the gentleman’s regimental number. On this occasion I wasn’t going to look at any other family members so I had all I needed. The brief was open-ended – I would find what I could find.
What did I do?
Armed with the regiment number I was hopefully about to discover the gentleman’s military life. Fortunately when I entered his number into one of the online resources that researchers use I hit gold. A lot of records were lost in World War II and even though the ones I needed were shown as being in the ‘burnt records’ collection I was able to locate over 40 pages of records.
My next task was to read through these records and note down ‘headline’ information. I had told my client of my discovery and he informed me that he would like a summary of what the records contained so that he could pass this on to other members of his family. So I took this information and produced what was, in effect, a condensed version of the records in the form of a timeline. I also researched the two letters that my client held and brought these into the events.
What did the client receive?
The timeline was turned into a summary that referenced the original records. When the records revealed pertinent information regarding medals I took this along with other researched knowledge and created an illustration naming the medals and listing what they were for. This illustration along with the aforementioned summary formed the documents that the client received, as well as a copy of the original records. To view the report click here.
After delivery of the report the client asked if I could produce a more graphical version of the information. I took the timeline in the report and produced an e-book. To view it click here.
What did this cost the client?
This project could have had a brief life had we been unable to find extant records and the price would have reflected that. As it was, to gather the preliminary information, to undertake the research, to analyse and compile the information found into a summary, to create the report and the illustration of the medals took 9 hours.
The total cost was £360.
The e-book cost an additional £160.
All research undertaken is based upon information supplied by the client. If the information supplied is not sufficient or incorrect then I can make no guarantees to find further information to build their story. Furthermore I am unable to guarantee that records pertaining to their family are 100% accurate or even exist!
Where necessary I will undertake a short initial search and if nothing is found I will contact them in the first instance. If they have paid for a number of hours in advance then I will refund any unused hours.