The Family History
Starting at €9.300,00
Most families don't lose their history all at once. They lose it slowly, one death at a time.
What survives is rarely complete. A photograph with no names written on the back. A letter folded carefully into a drawer for forty years. A birth certificate that records a date but not the circumstances surrounding it. A familiar expression, repeated for generations, though no one remembers who first said it. A story told so many times that its edges have softened, changed slightly with every retelling, until memory and history have become inseparable.
These are the fragments from which a family is made — and the material we begin with.
The Family History gathers those fragments before they disappear. Through intimate interviews, family archives, photographs, correspondence, official records, and historical research, this volume reconstructs the story of a family across generations — not as a genealogy of names and dates, but as a living account of the people behind them.
It traces where the family began, the places that shaped it, the circumstances that brought people together, and the journeys that carried them elsewhere. It follows marriages and separations, births and losses, periods of prosperity and hardship, changes of country and circumstance, and the decisions — both deliberate and accidental — that altered the course of the generations that followed.
Every chapter is written with a clarity that ensures a reader decades from now will understand exactly who these people were, and how this family came to be.
Choose Your Scope
History
For the family seeking a coherent narrative — origins, migrations, key generations, and turning points. A single unified history built from scattered fragments.
Archive
Built for families with multiple branches, extensive migration history, or expansive archival material. It holds the full shape of the family, making every layer legible.
Tailored
Define your own pagination and interview parameters directly with your editor. Pricing is adjusted from our starting rates according to the scope agreed.
On Family Complexity
Very few family histories arrive as a single, agreed-upon account. Branches drift apart, memories of the same event differ from one relative to the next, and some chapters — an estrangement, a difficult decision, a period no one likes to discuss — are remembered differently depending on who is asked, or not discussed at all.
We treat this as expected, not as an obstacle. Where accounts diverge, we gather each perspective independently rather than smoothing them into one version. Where a chapter is sensitive, you decide — together with your editor — how directly it is addressed, how it is framed, or whether it is left for a private appendix rather than the main narrative. The result is a history that is honest to your family's actual complexity, not a simplified version of it.
Created For
- Families scattered across countries who sense the historical threads between them beginning to thin.
- Descendants who have inherited only fragments of their lineage and wish to document the unbroken whole.
- Anyone who recognizes the urgency of capturing an elder's memory before it fades permanently.
What Is Delivered
- Private, structured listening sessions conducted across multiple generations to capture a comprehensive family narrative.
- Rigorous historical research to place personal experience within the broader context of time and place.
- A fully original, long-form manuscript that elevates family lineage into an enduring literary work.
- The archival integration of historic photographs and significant personal documents.
- A masterfully bound, heirloom-grade printed volume, accompanied by a complete digital edition.
Commission Details
We begin with a private consultation to discuss your vision and confirm scope. Payment is split into three installments: an initial deposit to begin gathering your story, a mid-point payment before writing begins, and the final balance upon delivery.
As each volume is an entirely bespoke commission, all agreements are treated as final. Our collaborative process — including listening sessions and review cycles — ensures complete alignment before fine production begins. Any rare printing or logistical issue is resolved personally and promptly.
Your heirloom volume is packaged and dispatched via secure, fully insured transit. We serve an international clientele, and all shipping considerations are included in your initial project quotation.