Patty, I wrote and included every piece of information I had. If you have any date that you could work back from to at least get an estimate of time (early 1900s, late 1800s, etc.) Once I had my first set of documents I then asked for the parents names which were on the first records and just keep working back. I haven't always had the exact dates. The first time I wrote I just asked them to find what they could on my grandparents. In the mail I received the documents with a very nice letter telling me the cost was $10 in U.S. funds per document. I immediately sent them a cashier's check from the bank for $20. I have been fortunate enough to have gotten up to 8 documents at a time. $80 seems like a lot of money but consider trying to make the trip or hire a personal archivist to do research for you. Those 8 documents were full of information that you wouldn't believe. I guess they feel that the honor systems works. When asking for documents I also put a limit on what I would be willing to spend for instance $100. I didn't think I'd be lucky enough to get more than that but I didn't want to get 40 or 50 documents and have a huge bill at one time. Good luck in your research. I have been more than happy with the response I have received for these archives. Good luck in your research!! Phyllis