Our new Genealogy Service

Posted by McPhee's Celtic on 18th Jun 2023

McPhee's Professional Genealogy Service specialising in Scottish and Irish Genealogy

At McPhee’s, operating a Scottish and Irish retail store is more than a job, it is a way of life.

Our mission has always been to connect people with their roots and culture in a meaningful way, whether that is by wearing a piece of tartan, wearing a Claddagh ring on your finger, maintaining your culture through music and dance or now through McPhee’s genealogy service, helping you make connections with your ancestors. This is why we are the only Celtic store in New Zealand offering a professional genealogy research service.

Our professional genealogist has decades of experience in family history research and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), The New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG) and an Associate Member of the British Society of Genealogists (SOG). You can read more about him here.

At some stage in our lives we all want to know where we came from, what life was like for our forebears and what the conditions and events were that helped shape them. With over a third of New Zealander’s claiming Scottish and Irish ancestry and a further third claiming English Ancestry, we see helping people connect with their past as a natural extension of our business. Whether it is understanding your clan or surname origins, learning more about your ancestors migration journey, or even knowing which names were passed down from generation to generation, we want to help you and your family maintain your links with the past.

Although Robert Louis Stevenson wrote this about the Scots, we are sure it applies to us all.

“The mark of a Scot of all classes [is that] he... remembers and cherishes his forebears, good or bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead even to the twentieth generation.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

At McPhee’s, we offer a range of genealogy services to help you uncover your family's history. Explore our standard research packages or talk to us about your needs and goals and how we can help you keep your past alive for tomorrow’s generations.

Read some of our client stories to find out more about the wonders of finding out more about your family story.

Each of our genealogy packages will give you a slightly different level of detail to help you on your on family history journey. You can see the differences in our Genealogy Packages by looking at our "Compare the Packages" Page. If you want to discuss a particular project you have in mind then contact us.

All of our research packages are based around working with you to develop a specifc research brief and operate using a 50% initial deposit.

Generally a project can be completed within a four week period, although the time to complete the work is largely dependant on the number of Certificate's that need to be ordered from an overseas Archive. If all your ancestors are Scottish, then nearly all the records are available online. If you have branches in England, and we need to order copies of Birth, Marriage or Death Certificates that can add four weeks to the process.

We will provide you with a time estimate and keep you informed on progress. If you have a specific deadline in mind, for a Birthday or a Wedding for example (an Ancestry report makes a wonderful gift!) then let us know and we will do our best to meet your timeframes.

In the days of online digital records, people often wonder what the benefits are in in using a professional genealogist. We believe there are a number of key benefits, and you can find out more by reading the "Why use a Professional Genealogist" page.