About Midwest Ancestor Research
Gift certificates available!
Research Assistance for Minnesota/Midwest States
If you're already well on the way to tracing your roots - or, you want to do it yourself but can't find the time or live too far away from midwestern genealogy sources - we can help! See rates below.
It's easier to read this headstone with digital photos than in person. Digital photos help with older stones, since you can manipulate the contrast to bring out the wording.
We provide genealogy research support. We can do look-ups of death certificates, obituaries, naturalizations, and census, cemetery, city directory, county histories and other Minnesota records and resources.
We also make periodic trips to repositories in Wisconsin and Illinois, with additional trips planned each year to other locations.
Whether you're out-of-state, have limited mobility, or are simply too busy to get to the records yourself, we can help.
Identify which records you need, and we can do the look-ups from microfilm at such places as the Minnesota Historical Society, the Minnesota Genealogical Society, or the Archives of the Chancery of the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
We can save you time and effort by tracking down sources of similar records from other locations and coordinating their acquisition for you from those other locations.
We provide advisory services to assist you in mapping out the next steps in your research.
Research Rates: Generally $30/hour, plus copy, postage costs and a share of parking costs (if applicable); and mileage costs (IRS rate) if not part of our scheduled trips to repositories.
Payment: in advance or by agreement. Payment can be made by personal check or PayPal. We will be happy to provide a written quote. You can set a "not to exceed" rate for our research.
 |
Estimated costs for individual Minnesota Records Look-ups.
Contact us with any questions and/or your information and we will provide you an estimate.
| Record Type | Estimated
cost
per search |
Note
|
| Death Certificate - by ID # | $5.00 |
You
provide certificate date & number. We can do bulk look-ups
at our hourly rate, usually at a lower cost (see note 1) |
| Death Certificate search - by name & location | hourly
rate |
You
provide family name(s), location(s) & range of dates. |
| Obituary or news article | $11.00 |
For
a search of 5 issues in up to two newspapers (see note 2) |
| Death certificate and related obituary or news article | $15.00
|
For
a search of 5 issues in up to two newspapers (see note 2) |
| Naturalizations | $5.00 |
You
provide the document reference.(see note 3) |
| Cemetery records, headstone photos | Digital
images of headstones available May - Sept. Mileage expenses
apply. |
|
Minnesota census records (1865, 1875, 1885, 1895, 1905) |
||
| Birth and marriage records | Some
early (pre-Vital) records are available for Minneapolis & Hennepin
County. Please contact us to discuss your needs. |
|
| Catholic birth, marriage & death records | Archives for the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis. |
* expenses generally include share of parking, cost of copies & postage, and occasionally additional mileage.
(1) found in the Minnesota Historical Society database: www.mnhs.org
(2) please provide the date of death, the person's residence, and newspaper name. Minnesota newspapers are catalogued at www.mnhs.org. If you prefer, we can determine which newspapers to search, at our hourly rate.
(3) please provide county, reel and document number references. Contact us if you need us to search the index to find that information.
Gift certificates available - a great gift for a holiday, milestone birthday, anniversary or retirement! Contact us for details.