What we decline, and how money works
This page exists so that nothing about scope or cost needs to be unclear. Please open a new ticket for any financial discussion. We strive to keep commerce discrete from genealogical efforts. Read further to see what is covered by RTR and the kinds of case we turn down. What happens when we turn one down and how payment is determined should be freely discussed in person and through the ticketing system.
LDS Temple and Ordinance work
We are more than happy to help prepare names for LDS Temple ordinances. This includes working with FamilySearch.org and the many questions that arise in that space. If the genealogical aims are fitting to the Historical Present Mission, we may attach a payment for the research and record archival, but never for the actual temple work. LDS members are encouraged at every step to honor the culture and the community commitments to keep that which is sacred, sacred.
The Roots to Records project will not submit names to the Temple or conduct ordinance work for tickets under any circumstances.
Unpaid tickets are always an option. Especially in cases of need and financial difficulty. Historical Present reserves the right to make recommendations for assistance on a case by case basis to help complete sacred work.
This extends to other sacred activities, many cultures and peoples have important distinctions about how sacred information is shared and handled. Please include such information in submissions.
Other reasons a request is declined
- The research is chiefly about a living person, or would require assembling a picture of one. We do family history, not people-finding. These special tasks always incur a cost and require specialized contracts handled by Historical Present, not the Roots to Records project.
- The purpose given, or one we can plainly infer, is to locate, contact, expose, or pressure someone.
- The case is already before a court, or the finding is meant as evidence in a contested matter — probate, custody, citizenship, tribal enrollment, a disputed estate. Any ticket requiring a member of Historical Present to testify to their work, must be explicitly stated from the first ticket.
- The records needed are held under a restriction we would have to misrepresent ourselves to get past. We will not lie for any reason, it is contrary to every effort we make.
- The request asks us to confirm a conclusion rather than to test one.
- The queue is long enough that taking the case would mean holding your money while nothing happens. Most large projects should begin at onset with some clear idea for the scope of payment. For example: If we receive a ticket requesting a RTR representative travel to an ancestral village to track down documentation, the cost easily amounts in the thousands. There should be no expectation for unpaid work if the demand is unclear.
We will also stop a case partway through, on the same grounds, if something surfaces that we did not know when we accepted it.
How a decline actually works
You will hear from a person, by email, with the reason stated plainly. We do not decline silently and we do not let a request sit unanswered so that it times out.
Where we can, the email carries somewhere else to go: an archive that holds what you need, the free resource that covers it, or the kind of researcher who should have it. A decline is not usually a dead end.
Nothing you sent us is kept as a case file once a request is declined. If you would like it deleted outright, the onus remains on the submitter.
How money works
Filing a request costs nothing and commits you to nothing. It is a description of a problem, not an order.
A ticket submitted with a predetermined cost or plan for payment must be included in the first ticket.
As demand rises, we do have a network of genealogists who can take up tickets to work. In the future there may be a cost per ticket. As of August 2026, there is no per ticket charge.
If we can take the case, we come back to you with the scope, what we think we can find, and what it will cost (if anything), before any research begins. Nothing is charged until you have that in writing and have agreed to it. We would rather quote a case honestly once we have read it than publish a rate that turns out to mean something different for every family.
A declined case is never charged for including one we stop partway. If a case is stopped after work has been done, you are billed for the work done and no more.
Watching the streams costs nothing and always will; they are public. A supporter account is how we keep track of whose family is next in the queue, not a payment.
We do not sell records, and we do not charge for a copy of a document you could pull yourself for free. Where a repository charges a fee for a copy or a certificate, that fee is theirs and we tell you what it will cost before we incur the charge.
If we decline your ticket
You are welcome to write back. A good many declines are the result of a request that was thinner than the person's actual question, and they turn into accepted cases once we understand what is really being asked.