Your family as a living graph
People, places, documents and open questions, color-coded and cross-referenced. Every claim links to the record that proves it.
Skeleton Files · Case intake open
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350 years.
That's how deep the records can reach: parish books, censuses, wills, land grants. I trace your family through them, record by record. AI speeds up the searching; it never decides what's true. Every name I hand you comes with the record that proves it.
Packages from $300 to $9,500, every starting price on this page. Your card is held, not charged, until we've both said yes.
- 250+people verified in my own tree
- 2 wksto trace both sides to the 1800s
- 1000sof family trees connected
- 100%of claims tied to a real document
Illustration, not data: every generation back doubles your ancestors. Solid: found in a record. Hollow: not found yet.
Keep scrolling. You're going back in time.Back to about 1900
Both sides · from $900
Both sides of your family, traced from records, not copied from other people's online trees. Every person is tied to the record that proves them. You get a sourced report and the full research trail: every search, including the dead ends.
Modern tools. Real archives. No guesswork.
In every package
Every link proven
Illustration: a link gets its check mark only when a record proves it. The red mark is a copied error, found and fixed.
Digital copies of every record
Each record sits under the claim it proves. Here, Padre Ballí's will, August 1828, where he names his parents. Texas General Land Office, SC 000136:2A, p. 5.
The research trail
The File 001 case board: the question, the research paths, and the ones that closed. Path 2 found his burial record but no age, and that dead end stays in the file.
Included: sourced research report · research trail · digital copies of every record
From $225 to start (25% deposit), the balance on delivery · or $900 paid in full
Back to the 1800s
Both sides · from $2,500
Both sides, back into the 1800s. Errors in existing trees found and documented. And this is where your file comes alive: your case vault and your private family website are included.
A website for the whole family
A clickable tree, a page for every ancestor with the records that prove them, a timeline, the places, the open questions. One link, any phone, password optional.
Open the sample family site →
From $625 to start (25% deposit), the balance on delivery · or $2,500 paid in full
File 001
A priest was buried in 1829. Nobody knows when he was born.
Padre Island is named for him, and the statue at the causeway reads “177?”. Working the Matamoros parish register page by page, on camera, I found his original burial entry: unindexed, and not cited in any published source. It gives his cause of death, apoplejía, a stroke. It also shows that the date every history book prints is really his burial date: the register already calls him “el finado”, the deceased, five days earlier.
Your file is built the same way, with the same rule: if it can't be tied to a document, it doesn't go in.
Read the case file →Back to the 1700s
One or two direct lines · from $5,500
The lines you choose, pushed into the 1700s, through land, probate, tax and church records, not just censuses. Vault, website, printed binder, physical documents, your Ancestry tree verified and the DNA tie-in are all included.
You pay as the line goes deeper.
Four equal parts: at the start, when a line reaches 1800, when it reaches 1700, and on delivery. Depth is a target, not a promise. If a line hits a true wall, such as a burned courthouse, billing stops at the last milestone reached and you keep everything found.
1800 · payment 2 of 4 1700 · payment 3 of 4
Something to hold
Printed family binder
Your records and photos, printed and organized in a binder you can page through at the kitchen table.
Design preview: the File 001 binder.
The real thing
Physical documents
Official paper copies of the records that prove your line, ordered from the archives that hold them, wherever they'll release them. Some take months to arrive.
A record from File 001: the 1828 survey file cover for Padre Island. Texas General Land Office, SC 000136:2A, p. 12.
On Ancestry.com
Your Ancestry tree, verified and corrected
Your tree on Ancestry, rebuilt line by line from primary records. Every copied error found, documented and fixed. Explore it in the app you already use.
From my own tree, with the living generations cropped out. Zoomed in, the line reaches 1771: Nicolas Blot, or Plott, 1771–1836.
Recommended first
AncestryDNA, tied into your file
Your matches confirm or break the paper trail, and they lead to the cousins who hold the photos and the stories. You order the kit from Ancestry (about $100). Results take about six to eight weeks, so order it the day you start.
Illustration.
All four are included from the 1700s package up. On the 1900 and 1800s packages you add them at checkout (physical documents at the archive fee + $10 each).
From $1,375 to start (payment 1 of 4) · or $5,500 paid in full
Back to the 1600s
One line, or both sides, every parent-child link proven with records. Catholic parish registers in Mexico frequently reach back into the 1600s, and I read them in the original Spanish.
One direct line
Back to the 1600s, one line
$6,500
One line, about 12 generations back. Every parent-child link proven with records. Vault, website, printed binder, physical documents, your Ancestry tree verified and the DNA tie-in included.
The written narrative and the custom-designed website are add-ons here.
$1,625 to start (payment 1 of 4) · or $6,500 paid in full
Choose one lineThe flagship · both sides
Back to the 1600s, both sides
$9,500
Your father's surname line and your mother's maiden-name line. About 24 ancestors across 350 years, every link proven. Everything included: vault, website, printed binder, physical documents, your Ancestry tree verified, the DNA tie-in, the written family narrative and the custom-designed website.
Spouses are named along the way, but their own families aren't researched.
For comparison, Legacy Tree's top package, the ELITE250, is $48,750. See both, item by item
$2,375 to start (payment 1 of 4) · or $9,500 paid in full
Choose the flagship
The story
Written family narrative
The story of your family, written from the records as a readable narrative, every claim sourced. The chapters go in the binder and on the website.
A sample page, written from File 001's records.
Designed around your family
Custom-designed family website
The private family website, designed from scratch: its own look, your photos and maps, story pages for the chapters that matter most.
A person page from the sample family site. A custom design gives your family's site a look of its own.
Both are included in the flagship. On every other package: narrative from $1,500, custom website from $1,000.
1500s and earlier: quoted case by case.
Now come back up. Here's everything, side by side.
Most firms sell research hours. I sell a defined target, billed as it's reached. See the honest comparison
| Deliverable | 1900 · both sides from $900 | 1800s · both sides from $2,500 | 1700s · one or two lines from $5,500 | 1600s · one line / both sides $6,500 / |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sourced research report | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Research trail: every search, including dead ends | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Digital copies of every record | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Physical documents: official paper copies, where archives release them | Per document | Per document | Included | Included |
| Printed family binder: your records and photos, to page through | Add-on | Add-on | Included | Included |
| Case vault: your family as a living, cross-referenced graph | Add-on | Included | Included | Included |
| Private family website, password optional | Add-on | Included | Included | Included |
| Your Ancestry tree, verified and corrected | Add-on | Add-on | Included | Included |
| AncestryDNA tied into your file (you buy the kit from Ancestry) | Add-on | Add-on | Included | Included |
| Written family narrative: the story, told from the records | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Flagship |
| Custom-designed family website | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on | Flagship |
| How you pay | 25% to start | 25% to start | 4 × 25% | 4 × 25% |
| Choose | Choose 1900 | Choose the 1800s | Choose the 1700s | One line · $6,500 Flagship · $9,500 |
- Physical documents: in the 1900 and 1800s packages, each paper copy costs the archive's own fee plus a $10 handling fee, and it's ordered only after you approve it.
- "From" prices are starting points. Checkout holds the starting price; if your written quote comes out higher, you see it in writing before you say yes, and the difference is billed on delivery.
- Add-ons: case vault from $250 · private website from $300 · Ancestry tree verified from $350 · DNA tie-in from $250 plus your kit · printed binder from $150 · custom-designed website from $1,000 · written narrative from $1,500 · physical documents at the archive fee + $10.
Open your case.
- Pick how far back.
- Pay 25% to start, or pay in full. Your card is authorized, not charged: Stripe holds the amount.
- Upload your documents and tell me what you already know, on your private foundation page.
- Within two business days you get the exact scope and total in writing. The payment is captured only when we've both said yes, you to the scope and total and me to the case. If either of us says no, the hold is released and nothing is charged.
Week-one feasibility check: if a line can't realistically reach the target, you choose: switch to another line, or take a refund minus the assessment fee.
Questions first? hello@skeletonfiles.com
James Duncan · Skeleton Files · Spring, Texas