Questions, answered.

Most requests fall between £40 and £400. The median fulfilled cost is £65. Genealogy and citizenship-by-descent records typically range £40 to £150. Provenance and academic transcription work ranges £100 to £400. You receive a quote within hours of posting.

On Source, every record is retrieved and verified by a local researcher who has access to the relevant holding institution or private access to the material. They physically visit, photograph the record, and where transcription is needed (Kurrent script, Latin notarial hands, Ottoman script) they transcribe it themselves, then deliver it.

Census records, birth and death certificates, parish registers, probate wills and inventories, newspaper archives, military service records, land registry deeds, court records, university theses and dissertations, institutional annual reports, local government minutes, trade directories, shipping manifests, photographs and visual ephemera, correspondence and personal papers, manuscript collections, and any non-digitised physical record held in a public, institutional, or privately accessible archive.

Post the request on Source and a local researcher retrieves it in person, median response 18 hours and median cost £65. Describe the archive (city and institution) and the document type. If you know where the material is held, tell us. If not, leave it blank and we will find it for you.

New locations are added daily. Currently there are researchers in Allschwil, Amman, Amsterdam, Ankara, Athens, Austin, Balad, Banda, Bannu, Barneveld, Basel, Berlin, Bolton, Bristol, Buenos Aires, Cambridge, Castres, Cheltenham, Chester, Chicago, Cologne, Dar es Salaam, Dartmouth, Den Haag, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Geneva, Hartney, Istanbul, Jbail, Jerusalem, Kadapa, Korçë, Larchmont, Lea City, Lira, London, Lucknow, Madrid, Melbourne, Montpellier, Moscow, Mosul, Mumbai, Munich, Naples, New York, Newcastle, Nottingham, Ottawa, Oxford, Paris, Richmond, Richterswil, Rome, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore, Somerville, Strasbourg, Suquamish, Swansea, São Paulo, Tel Aviv, Tirana, Tlaxcala, Buea, Toronto, Valentia Island, Venice, Vienna, Warri, Zomba, Zurich, Zutendaal.

Same-week Stripe payout on every accepted job. Reduced platform fees on the first three jobs. Researchers earn £40 to £400 per request.

Yes. The record is delivered to you and stays private. Source publishes only anonymised proof-of-fulfilment cards, showing the archive name, record type, turnaround, and cost. No customer name, personal information, or content is ever shared without your consent.

Yes. The bespoke service handles multi-archive projects spanning several institutions or jurisdictions, due diligence and research for legal and compliance teams, provenance research for auction houses, dealers and collectors, and partnership agreements with libraries, archives, and universities needing ongoing access to specialist contributors. Submit a bespoke request and the team responds within two business days.