Ancestry and Heirs

Not many people know the names of their family beyond their grandparents; do you know the names of your great grandparents, what they did or where they came from? Do you have family stories but are not sure if they are true? Perhaps you have started carrying out your own family research but have come to a sudden stop?

Ancestry and Heirs is a professional service, run by a qualified genealogist, Nikki Paine who specialises in Kent family research.  Nikki is a member of the Register of Qualified Genealogists (RQG). The business is also registered with the Information Commissioners Office to comply with the Data Protection Act.

Everybody has different questions and stems of their family that they would like researched. The professional service provided by Ancestry and Heirs, therefore, offers a bespoke service that is tailored to meet your specific needs and is not reliant on only offering prescribed packages.

Services on offer include:

  • Family history research
  • Probate research
  • One-to-one tuition in the Kent area
  • Talks and presentations

Register

About

Ancestry and Heirs is owned by me, Nikki Paine. I have the MSc. with Merit, in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies, form Strathclyde University. The MSc. is a highly recognised qualification in genealogy that shows competence in genealogical research.

Prior to this I worked as a qualified nurse for 19 years and then spent 15 years in Further Education, teaching and managing the health and care curriculum.  I also have a BA (Hons) in Post Compulsory Education.

I was adopted as a baby and in adulthood became interested in knowing the family history of my birth parents.  This quickly became addictive and a love of genealogical research was born.  I have traced my living relatives, and have also found that my paternal ancestors were hard working coal miners for generations and one of them lived at the illustrious address of No. 6 Bog Row!  Although no fortunes are hidden in my family tree I was proud to find them all hard working, striving for a better life for their own children, something which I have done for my own two sons.

Living in Ashford Kent, I have good access to The National Archives, The London Metropolitan Archives and the Society of Genealogists.

I am a member of the Register of Qualified Genealogists (RQG) and abide by their code of conduct. Ancestry and Heirs is registered with the Information Commissioners Office for Data Processing under the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 and will not share your information with anyone without your permission.

Family History

Family is important to all of us but over time families became disconnected from each other. This can be for many reasons. Children with no siblings can become distanced from cousins, some people never marry and some of those who do marry never have children of their own. People may emigrate, losing touch with their English relatives they have left behind. This was the same for our ancestors, who travelled much more than many people think, making it difficult to trace back our family trees.

Ancestry and Heirs are able to help you trace your family ancestry, with a particular expertise in Kent ancestry. Knowing your ancestors does not change your life, you might have noble ancestry or descend from the workers of the land, but knowledge about them gives richness to your family history and provides stories to tell your children and grandchildren.

Ancestry and Heirs endeavour to research your ancestry going back in time from the present day to the early 1800s and many times beyond. Using census records along with birth, baptism, marriage, death and mewspaper records, a picture of your ascendants is slowly built up to provide knowledge of your family tree.

 

Costs

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At Ancestry and Heirs the costs are kept simple.  Choose from either the Silver Research or the Gold Researchpackages, or should you require bespoke research undertaken, I will then discuss this with you to agree the amount of time to be spent on the research. This is then billed at £35 per hour.  A copy of the contract can be seen

Silver Research

This consists of one surname, researched back four generations, to include spouses and children where found. You receive an A4 Family Tree Chart together with a written report which includes transcripts and references to records sourced.  The cost of this is £280.

Gold Research

This is the same as the Silver Research but includes two surnames researched back four genertions. The cost of this is £480.

Types of research that people request includes:

  • Research of the male line, to include spouses, children and occupations
  • Research of 4 generations
  • Research to answer specific questions
  • Help with finding a specific ancestor
 

It is important to stress that the costs are for the time spent in undertaking the research.  The findings are then presented in a written report and examples of these can be seen below. 

Your privacy is very important to Ancestry and Heirs and our Privacy Policy can be seen here

Other Services

Probate Research

I am happy to undertake probate research work for solicitors. This can include:

  • Tracing missing heirs who have been named in a Will
  • Establishing the family connection for possible heirs
  • Providing proof of relationships
  • Establishing heirs in the case of intestacy
 

Talks

  • With a degree in Education and many years experience of teaching I am a competent and professional presenter
  • I am happy to come and give talks to groups who are interested in genealogy
  • These talks can be an introduction to genealogy or be made bespoke for your specific requirements

 

One-to-one teaching

  • It can cost a lot of money to pay a researcher to carry out research for you. I am happy to provide a two hour introductory session to finding your roots for the cost of £75
  • Please contact me for more details
  • Area covered for this service is Kent
 

Testimonials

Dear Nikki I started to look for my family tree but with a surname of SMITH it was difficult to prove who was a relation and who was not. You helped me to trace them and prove that the people I had found were related, in fact back to the 1500’s I would like to thank you for the help and the ways that you simply taught me how to find and reference ancestors. Thank you, Steve
Steve Smith
Steve SmithDeal, Kent
Hi Nikki, Thank you for doing such a good job in sorting out my family records. It is all very well my having a collection of birth, marriage and death certificates, but putting them in a coherent form and extracting details from them is not as straightforward as I had hoped, but you have done a marvelous job. Not only that, the personal details you were able to track down, that were previously unknown to my family, gave colour and credence to the anecdotal evidence that forms a lot of our history. Your research has given us the impetus to continue with the search, although we may be calling on you again if we get in a muddle! Many thanks, Rosemary
Rosemary
RosemaryMersham, Kent
Dear Nikki I am very grateful to you for all your hard work in researching my history and confirming some of the facts that my mother thought were true. I am much more aware now of where my roots truly are and of more avenues to search. Thank you Nikki, Lynn
Lynn Curtis
Lynn CurtisAshford, Kent
Dear Nikki Thank you for researching my family tree. I am extremely pleased with the result which has been quite surprising. Thank you for your guidance in enabling me to seek professional help to make contact with my birth family and I hope someday to meet my full blood sister. Ian
Ian ShawEnfield, Middlesex
Nikki has been terrific to work with. She has been most cooperative, timely, and thorough. I have used several services over the years and of them all, Ancestry & Heirs been the best to work with, taking the time to understand the needs and follow through with achieving them. I would highly recommend Ancestry & Heirs and will most certainly continue to do so.
Terry BrownKentucky, USA
Working with Nikki was a pleasure. She was extremely responsive and pieced together all the information quickly and diligently. My family is extremely pleased with the final product which will serve as an important piece of family history. I cannot recommend Nikki enough to anyone! Thanks, Max
Max JohnsonLondon
A couple of years ago i decided to hire Nikki to research my ancestors from the British Isles. My mother's father was from Scotland and her mother was from England. I knew that i did not have the patients to do such an investigation. Nikki did a great job and found information way beyond my expectations. She was super at discussing the areas that i wanted a deeper dive on the research while staying within my budget restraints. Not only was the traditional birth, death, marriage and divorce information uncovered but occupation and community leaderships data as well. It further included a trove of pictures and addresses of former residents. I highly recommend Nikki.
Raymond ScheppachUSA
I met Nikki through a local news paper, at the time I was looking for a long lost Great Uncle Jack, who had faught in both world wars. So got in touch, and almost straight away we found him. Nikki was so helpful, nothing was too much trouble! I would recommend her to anyone.
Daphne Cotugno Ashford, Kent
Nikki's work is accurate concise and very well researched Well presented and in an easy to read format Thanks again Nikki
Pete HaygarthGreat Yarmouth, Suffolk
We worked with Nikki Paine on my family and she was excellent, she explored my mother’s brothers First World War history and found where he was buried and even showed us photos of the cemetery. She also did amazing work on my fathers side of the family and really brought our ancestors to life for us using a range of sources that we would never have dreamed off including newspaper articles and cuttings of a mine disaster in which my great grandfather was killed. Outstanding professional empathic service
Dr Anna Sloman-GowerCanterbury, Kent
After 20 years in which I am in the field of locating heirs, during which I work with genealogists from around the world - I can say with confidence and wholeheartedly that Nikki's high professionalism, reliability and integrity - ensure that anyone who needs her services as a genealogist - will receive the best service. Highly recommended.
Ilan CarlemiIsrael
Nikki did my family tree last year and I was very impressed. From the friendly first contact, understanding what I was after and keeping me updated through the whole process. I was able to google pictures of the cottage my great gran and grandad lived in and Nikki provided copies of my great grandad's army papers. I am still working, bit by bit, through the information and adding to it where I can but when I do decide to delve further I will contacting Nikki again.
SandyAshford, Kent
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Case Studies

Ancestry and Heirs would like to thank Ian for giving permission to publish his report on this website.

Please click on the case studies below to view the full report.

Terms and Conditions

When you decide to appoint Ancestry and Heirs as your professional genealogical service:

  • I will discuss the research brief in detail with you, the client
  • You, the client, will be expected to ensure I am in possession of all relevant information you have about your family history
  • Once the research brief is agreed you will receive this in writing
  • A timescale will be agreed between both parties and put in writing to you
  • If certificates need to be purchased, your agreement will be sought and you will be charged the current fee of the General Registry Office, currently £9.25. This charge will be added to the final bill
  • If it becomes apparent that a line within the family tree cannot be traced back any further, e.g. John Brown b. abt. 1880 in London, you will be notified and can either just have the research carried out so far and a partial rebate or have another line within the family researched
  • Current research cost is £35 per hour (travel time is charged at £25 per hour and includes fuel, parking and photography licences where appropriate.)
  • Once a time package is agreed e.g. 20 hours of research, payment is for half the fee in advance and the rest on completion
  • There will be a seven day cooling off period for your peace of mind in which, should you decide not to proceed, you will receive a full refund of your deposit
  • A timescale of 6 – 10 weeks should be allowed for your report depending on the size and complexity of your research
  •  Travel to London Archives charged at British Rail High Speed return fare. This would be discussed with you prior to the undertaking of the journey.
  • You can expect to receive a written report that gives transcriptions of any records searched, points that can be taken from the records and suggestions for further research
  • A copy of the contract can be viewed on the website
  • I agree to abide by the code of conduct of the Association of Professional Genealogists
  • I agree to maintain full confidentiality of your family records and any certificates purchased will be given to you and no record of them will be kept by Ancestry and Heirs
  • I am registered with the Information Commissioners Office and all research is kept on a password protected computer
  • The copyright of the document will be with Ancestry and Heirs but I am happy for you to publish your report online, or share it with other members of the family, so long as Ancestry and Heirs is accredited

Contact Us

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