For those of you that were wondering how long and how much it cost to get records from the Madeira Archives, I thought that I would relay my experiences. There are 3 ways to get the records you need. You can either Wire a amount into their bank, send a personal check or send an international money order. IMPORTANT: Make sure you keep a copy of your check, wire receipt or money order. I first sent a wire of 30 dollars converted into Euro's. This is a very expensive way to do it, but has a very fast turnaround. The cost at the bank that I used, CITI, was $40.00. The time it took for the Madeira Archives to verify the amount and send my documents was about 1 week. The second time I sent a personal check, which only cost the amount of a stamp and of course the amount for converting into Euros. This took one month. This includes the processing time of their bank as well as my bank in cashing it. I have not yet received any of the documentation that I requested on June 23rd, but they did inform me that the money, $70.00 has been converted and the amount in the account is 51 Euros and that the documents I have requested, 6 marriage documents, will cost a total of 10.40 Euros or abount 1.3 Euros each. The third way, international money order, I did not use. However, the time it takes to convert into Euros would not be in the calculation since it would already be in Euro's as well as the time it takes once they receive it and process a check. The cost based on the initial $30.00 came out to about $6.00 per record. Which is very cheap to say the least! Once they scanned the record they will e-mail directly to you if you supply them with an e-mail address. Part of the $6.00 fee per record includes the fee for e-mailing and scanning. My initial records consisted of 1 Passport and 4 marriage records. I had two marriage records as jpg file and the others were in pdf format. They keep a file of everyone that request information. Make sure that you make a copy or your check etc. as a jpg or gif to attach to any e-mail where you request documents. Tom Freitas