Tell us one ancestor. We find them in the old records, write their story with every source shown, and make a short film of their life.
Start with one name · $99Delivered by email within 10 days. Full refund if we can't find them.
Most families have a little: a name, a guess at a birth year, a town someone mentioned once. That's enough to start.
Tell us what you know, even the parts you're unsure of. Unsure is useful too.
Every ten years from 1850 to 1950 a census taker knocked on the door and wrote down who lived there. We go through those pages, along with draft cards, ship lists, naturalization papers, marriage and death records, and old newspapers.
Not a database lookup. Reading the actual pages, one line at a time.
A draft card, a naturalization form, a marriage license. Often the only thing your ancestor ever wrote that survived is a signature on a government form.
When it's there, we find it, and it goes in the film.
Where they lived, where they married, and when the records allow it, the town they came from.
Where a step isn't written down anywhere, like a crossing nobody recorded, we draw it in dots, not a line. Then we tell you where the record that would settle it is most likely to be.
Parents, brothers and sisters, a husband or wife, children. Every connection traced to the record it came from.
Anyone who might still be living stays unnamed. We only name people the records show have died.
About a minute and a half: the maps, the real documents, the places, their own hand. Made to be watched together and passed around the family.
About ninety seconds of maps, documents and places. When the records allow it, it includes their own handwriting.
Their story in plain words up front. Every fact cited to its record at the back, plus where to look next.
The family at a glance: tree, maps and dates. Sized for phones and easy to pass around.
The film, the family history and the one-page summary. Delivered by email within 10 days. If we can't find them in the records at all, you get a full refund.
Start with one nameEvery fact comes from a record, and we show you which one.
Unknown steps are drawn in dots. We never fill a gap with a guess.
Where the records disagree, we show both versions.
Where the trail ends, we tell you exactly where the next record is likely to be.
A film we made for one family, shared with their permission. Every place, date and document in it comes from the records.
Anyone in your family who has died. Ancestors who lived in the United States sometime between 1850 and 1950 work best, because that's where the census and draft records are richest. If they came from another country, we trace them back to their home town whenever the American records name it.
That's normal. A name, a state and a rough decade is often enough. A maiden name, a town, an old photo with writing on the back all help, and you can send more after you order by replying to the confirmation email.
We're a two-person desk. Patrick White has been putting public records online for over a decade. Claude, an AI made by Anthropic, does the searching, reads the old handwriting, writes the history and makes the film. Every report gets two independent read-throughs for errors before it goes out.
No. It's a researched family history with sources you can check. For a certified birth or death certificate you'd go to the county or state that issued it, and we'll tell you which one.
We never name anyone who may be living in anything we make. They appear only as something like "a daughter, born 1931."