Introduction

I started my genealogical journey when I was seven years old. My maternal grandmother had just returned from a trip to England, and my family had just moved across the country. She had printed out our family tree showing our descent from Eleanor of Aquitaine and our relationship to George Washington.

For the next couple years, we would sit together during our visits, and she taught me how to research using books, records, and charts. By the time I was ten, I was off on my own, researching the parts of my family unrelated to my grandmother. Visiting libraries, churches, cemeteries, archives, museums, and historic sites were fun pursuits that took up my summers and holidays throughout my school years and continue today.

My studies in the United Kingdom allowed me the opportunity to gain experience researching in the same types of repositories as the United States and exposed me to the differences in records of countries that span centuries longer yet were culturally different in the ways and reasons documents were created. Their cemeteries, churches, and libraries are much older in many cases. By the time I returned to the United States, I’d explored repositories in Wales, Scotland, and England. The continuing education strengthened my research capabilities and knowledge necessary to pursue genealogy as a career.

Growing up, my passion for genealogy was such I’d always wanted to make a career of it, though I didn’t realize it was actually possible until I obtained a full-time position as a genealogist. Since starting my genealogy career, I’ve been to repositories or cemeteries in the following states: Alabama, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington DC. There are many other states I’ve had correspondence with repositories in but have not yet had the chance to visit.

Genealogy has made many experiences in my life fulfilling. Knowing the people and experiences that made it possible for me to be here is a gift and the journey to finding those unknown is an exciting (occasionally frustrating) puzzle. I am lucky to be close to some of the best genealogical repositories in the country. Due to this and wanting to help others with their genealogical puzzles, I decided to offer services to help those pursuing their own genealogical journeys.

This blog will focus on my own genealogy, but there will also be cases of interesting research, associates, and surname research I’ve done while looking for my family and new avenues of record research. Not everything is online, there are records only on microfiche, in manuscript collections, libraries, churches, and archives. When there are useful studies, record collections, periodicals, genealogy tools and tips, and news pertinent to genealogy, I’ll post about that as well.

I’m a proud member of Association of Professional Genealogists.