Guidelines For Requesting Research
From The Lawrence County Archives
Requests for off-site extensive research is currently not being accepted. We will count pages in a family file folder, look up obituaries, marriages, cemetery records, or any other record that only takes a few minutes without charge for our time. You MUST follow the rules listed below, or your request will be returned.
The Lawrence County Archives' staff gladly performs research for
off-site researchers. Any requests for information to our office by email,
regular mail or telephone will be handled as quickly as possible. However,
the waiting period between your initial request and when we actually perform the
research could be anywhere from one week to a few months. This is due to
the fact that 1) our staff consists of only two people, Rita and myself; 2) we have an
overwhelming amount of requests; 3) we have many on-site researchers
whose needs must be served first. We also have many daily tasks to do and
various projects we are usually working on. IF you need pages copied from a
particular surname family file folder (consists of research donated to the
archives or copies of research I have preformed for off-site requests), we will
still do this. This link will take you to the web page listing all the family
file folders we have at the archives.
Before requesting a search and in order to expedite your request, please read
all of the information below and follow the few rules listed.
1) Only submit a request for research on one surname at a time. After you receive the copies pertaining to your query, then you may submit another request. The second request will fall in line behind other people who have submitted requests between your first and second request. This will allow us to provide this service for more off-site researchers so our backlog will not be as large.
2) When requesting a search, send the names and dates that you know and if you are looking for something specific. DO NOT request EVERYTHING WE HAVE on a particular surname. The information found might only be a few pages, or it could be hundreds of pages.
3) If you only want certain records checked, please specify which records you need, not to exceed 5 records for each request. [Example: census record, marriages, wills and estate settlements, court petitions, and minute books.]
4) You may also specify if you want us to spend just one hour ($5) researching, or if we are finding additional info, to continue up to a certain amount.
5) Please be sure to send a list of any records you have checked previously in Lawrence or surrounding counties (Wayne, Giles, Lewis, Maury in TN and Lauderdale Co in AL) so I will not duplicate your search. Also, state whether you found info in other counties in TN or northern AL.
6) When we finish the search, we will give you a list of records we have found with the price for each listed beside it. You can decide which records you need copied or have all of the material copied.
7) You may request that we give a summary of what we found, what it concludes and advice on what or where you need to check next. Any summary or conclusion that takes over 10 minutes will be charged at the $5 an hour rate. [Summary or conclusion = explaining how each document relates to other documents, what the records prove, etc.]
7) If you just want everything copied that a "family file folder" contains on a particular surname, there is not a research charge. We will count the pages and tell you the cost of copies and postage. If you request that we search a family file folder for a specific name within the file, especially if it is large, we will charge a $5.00 an hour research fee prorated to reflect how much time spent. See this web page for our list of family file folders
Fees Are Listed Below:
1) We charge $5 an hour for research.
2) We require a $5 deposit up front.
3) Copy fees are currently 25 cents per page = 1 side of 1 page.
4) The copies will be mailed to you after we receive a check or money order for the copies, postage and/or any additional research time over the $5 deposit.
5) We normally mail copies and documents regular first class, unless you can request priority or their is a large amount of material. Sometimes priority is just as cheap as first class mail. Postage for priority is figured by weight and your zip code.
6) Make your check or money order payable to the Lawrence County Archives, and mail to the archives at 524 Gallaher St., Lawrenceburg, TN 38464.
Kathy Niedergeses, Director
Lawrence County Archives
lcarchives@lorettotel.net
Last up dated May 3, 2006 by Kathy Niedergeses