Before JRI got involved in East Galicia, the Pikholz Project undertook
its own project to coordinate searches for a group of surnames based
on participation in the search expenses and individual oreders for the
records themselves.

It involved (and still does) a huge amount of rewarding but
uncompensated work on our part, but we get the side benefit of
seeing everyone else's records and occasionally picking up some
that the archives missed.

Some of the people who have joined this project have been very
appreciative, realizing that to do the same on their own would have
cost much more. Others complain alot.

Life is tough that way. If you ask for a surname search, the archives
will charge you for each of the twins born to the parents in question,
even if both died before even being named. But you pay the
researcher to do, not always to think. Occasionally you will find half a
dozen births to the same couple but only one has some critical piece
of information.

That said, $550 for seventeen records seems like alot to me, without
warning. I'd think that unless very specifically agreed beforehand, the
travel and food are included in the charges.

Israel Pickholtz