"Could You Just Confirm...?" – Why the Question Determines the Cost

One of the phrases I hear surprisingly often is:

"Could you just confirm..."

Usually, the request sounds wonderfully straightforward.

"Could you just confirm whether he returned to Israel?"

"Could you just check whether she's still alive?"

"Could you just find out if they had children?"

On the surface, they seem like simple yes-or-no questions.

Sometimes they are.

More often... they're the beginning of an investigation.

One of the biggest misconceptions about forensic genealogy is that the complexity lies in the answer. It rarely does.

The complexity lies in establishing that the answer is correct.

Imagine someone asks me whether a particular individual returned to Israel.

That sounds like one question.

In reality, several questions may need answering first.

Have we identified the correct individual?

Could there be another person with the same name?

Have they changed their surname?

Did they emigrate under a different nationality?

Are there records in more than one country? Is someone I am looking for searchable? Have they been, perhaps, incapacitated? Do they want to be found?

Only once those possibilities have been considered can I begin answering the original question.

The client hears one question.

The genealogist hears the investigation behind it.

This is one of the reasons forensic genealogy isn't priced according to the number of words in the answer.

A report stating:

"No evidence has been identified that the individual returned to Israel."

may represent several hours of careful research.

Equally, a report confirming that somebody did return to Israel may require considerably less work if the evidence is readily available.

The answer itself isn't what clients commission.

They commission the professional process required to reach that answer.

Clients occasionally tell me that they have a limited budget.

I completely understand.

One of the advantages of working in phases is that the investigation can often be matched to the client's actual objective.

For example, there is a considerable difference between asking:

"Is there evidence that this person returned to Israel?"

and asking:

"Can you locate them, confirm whether they are alive, identify their descendants and provide documentary evidence supporting those conclusions? Translated, please."

Both are entirely reasonable questions.

They are simply different investigations.

For that reason, I often discuss the client's objectives before recommending the scope of the research.

Sometimes a preliminary assessment is entirely sufficient.

Sometimes a formal evidentiary report is required.

Occasionally, an investigation begins with one question and expands naturally as new evidence emerges.

The important thing is that the scope reflects the client's needs rather than assumptions about what should be investigated.

Interestingly, defining the question properly often saves money rather than increasing costs.

A narrowly defined objective may require only a limited investigation.

A broader objective understandably requires more time, more sources and more analysis.

The research should be proportionate to the question being asked.

People sometimes assume that the best investigation is the most thorough and an expensive one. I don't think that's necessarily true. The best investigation is the one that answers the client's question without asking them to pay for work they don't actually need.

That is one of the reasons I often structure investigations in phases.

Each phase answers one clearly defined question before the next begins.

Perhaps that's why I never mind when somebody asks,

"Could you just confirm...?"

It's a perfectly reasonable question.

It simply opens another conversation.

Not about price.

But about scope.

Once we understand exactly what the client needs to know, we can design an investigation that is both proportionate and cost-effective.

At EHN Heir Search, every investigation begins by defining the question.

Because once the objective is clear, the methodology—and the budget—usually become much clearer too.