# Source · The record is there. So is one of ours.

> Source is a peer-to-peer network for in-person research. A vetted researcher with live credentials at that archive retrieves the record and sends it back, often within the week. No travel. No silence. No freelancer roulette. Genealogy, citizenship-by-descent, provenance, due diligence, academic. 72 cities active across 30 countries. Same-week Stripe payout to researchers. Every record is retrieved and verified by a real person already inside that archive.

## What Source does

Source connects two sides:
- People who need a physical archive record (a parish baptism, a notarial deed, a customs file, a manuscript page) but cannot travel to the archive themselves.
- Vetted local researchers who already have access to those archives and can retrieve, photograph, and where needed transcribe records on behalf of the requester.

Most archive records are not online. Most local archives do not reply to email from abroad. Source closes that gap with humans.

## Key facts

- 72 cities across 30 countries have active researchers as of May 2026
- Median day-1 turnaround of 18 hours
- Median fulfilled cost is £65 per request
- Most requests fall between £40 and £400
- Active demand cities include New York, Washington DC, São Paulo, Tokyo
- Coverage spans the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Middle East
- Researchers are paid same-week via Stripe with no platform fees on first three jobs
- Every record is retrieved by a real person in the archive, never machine-generated
- Every retrieved record is private to the requester by default

## Common use cases

1. Citizenship-by-descent applicants need ancestral vital records (birth, baptism, marriage, military) from villages or parishes their ancestor came from. Italian, Polish, Irish, German diaspora are the largest cohorts.
2. Provenance researchers and auction houses verify chain-of-custody for artworks via notarial deeds, customs records, exhibition catalogues, ownership certificates.
3. Academic doctoral researchers retrieve non-digitised archive material for theses and books. Multi-page transcriptions in Kurrent, secretary hand, Latin notarial.
4. Legal due-diligence and KYC teams retrieve documents from non-digitised public registries, declassified archive boxes, and historical corporate records.

## How it works

1. Post it · 2 minutes, free, no signup. Name the archive and the document.
2. Claimed within hours, by someone already there. A vetted researcher with live credentials at that archive accepts and quotes.
3. Retrieved, photographed and transcribed on your terms.
4. Delivered, then you pay. Stripe-secured. You approve before release. Researcher paid same-week.

## Pricing

- Median fulfilled cost: £65
- Genealogy and citizenship-by-descent: £40 to £150
- Provenance and academic transcription: £100 to £400
- Bespoke multi-archive projects: from £400, scoped per project
- Free to post; offers within 24 hours; 5% off the platform fee on your next search

## Pages (with clean markdown versions for LLMs)

- Homepage: https://bemysource.com/ · markdown: https://bemysource.com/index.md
- Privacy policy: https://bemysource.com/privacy · markdown: https://bemysource.com/privacy.md
- Terms of service: https://bemysource.com/terms · markdown: https://bemysource.com/terms.md
- Cookie policy: https://bemysource.com/cookies · markdown: https://bemysource.com/cookies.md

## App

- iOS app: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/source/id6753940502
- Android app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bemysource.source.staging&pcampaignid=web_share

## Privacy

Every retrieved record is private to the requester. Source publishes only an anonymised proof-of-fulfilment card if the requester opts in, showing the archive name, record type, turnaround, and cost. No customer name, ancestor name, or document content is ever shared without explicit consent.

## Human-only retrieval

Every record is retrieved by a real person who walks into the physical archive. Where transcription is needed (Kurrent script, Latin notarial hands, Ottoman script, Cyrillic chancery), the human researcher transcribes it themselves. The platform's value is precisely in the human walking into the physical archive.

## Contact

- Bespoke research: bespoke@bemysource.com
- Institutional partnership: institutions@bemysource.com
- Press: press@bemysource.com
- Researchers: researchers@bemysource.com
- Source Scholar registrations (for students): sourcescholar@bemysource.com
- Newsletter (The Research Review, monthly): newsletter@bemysource.com