I charge £15 per hour, but I also have to make a charge to cover expenses. Many records are now available on the internet, but many of these sources require a subscription. This is an overhead, and therefore reflected in the hourly charge. I may need sometimes to purchase a CD for certain searches, and again this would be considered as an overhead and incur no extra charge.
For some records I have to travel to local record offices, and for this I would have to charge expenses. Still other sources require travel to the National Archives in Kew.
So where travel is necessary, travel and accomodation expenses have to be charged and as far as possible, I try to divide these as thinly as possible among a number of clients. Copies and photocopies will also be charged at cost.
Sometimes a visit can be avoided by paying the record office a search fee to look up and copy certain items, and this fee would then be added to the expenses.
I will always clearly state the charge, at the end of the research, or at the end of certain stages, following discussion, including detailing all expenses.
