Please help me to help you....
I am contacted many times via the BROOKS One Name Study for help in tracing other peoples families, usually because they have hit a Brick Wall and do not know where to turn.
As a Member of the Guild of One Name Studies i have agreed to give my time freely [normal rates at records offices are now around £30 per hour] and to make the information from all of my databases and collection of documents freely to anyone who asks. [today worth around £20,000].
This with my 30 years experience means i have a wealth of knowledge concerning the BROOKS surname and if i do not know i am happy to try and look and purchase at my own expense new records that will help prove or disprove a link.
The Surname of BROOKS is very common and when incorporating the name of BROOKES also makes it even harder to know everything.
I collect on my own many many documents and keep adding to my collection each year, helping many people who have contacted me over the years or have viewed information via one of my websites.
So please think about what you are asking me to do - and consider what information i need to help you.
In January i was contacted by someone wanting information for a Mary Ann BROOKS or BROOKES born around 1852 or 1853 somewhere in England mother was Mary Brooks no fathers name.
They told me they had this info via a death certificate in New Zealand and did not know where or when she was married.
I spent about an hour of my time finding 35 References to Mary Ann Brooks & 10 for Mary Ann Brookes born between 1852 and 1853 and located the marriage for her in New Zealand 1876.
My advice was to purchase the Marriage Certificate in New Zealand just in case it obtained further information and would they please in the meantime send me a copy of her death certificate 1. to add to my database, 2. just to get a feel for the family so i could try and locate her in the UK.
The results of my requests and time i spent on this are very common in the world we live in, is that i have had no reply even to thank me for taking the time to respond, and received no further information i had asked for.
So any further research i could and would have done is left waiting and the person who asked for my help will never know if i actually do have information in any of my databases that may be her lost relation.
A very sad conclusion. So please do spare a thought to all the work that goes into a One Name Study and if you are requesting my help, then why is it so bad that i do sometimes ask for yours.
