When I was about ten years old, I learned that a family genealogist had written a book (three large volumes it turned out!) on one line of my family. The author had lived with my great-Aunt Una at the farm while she conducted research for her book in Stueben County, New York.

It wasn’t long before I figured out a way to access these volumes and became mesmerized by the names, migrations, hardships, triumphs and community the volumes documented. Not long after, I discovered the joys of the census when I found future spouses living next door to each other as children. The idea that it was possible to trace my ancestors through time using documents was magical to me. Historical events no longer seemed like far away occurrences when my actual ancestors had participated in them.

In the desire to expand my research skills to areas and time periods different from what I knew from my own family, I took on projects for friends and attended courses and genealogy institutes. I learned that I love unraveling other peoples family stories as much as my own. See my About page for more details.

Fast forward many years, books read, repositories visited, courses taken and ancestors collected, and I only love the research more. Research into my own family has taken me throughout the Northeast, from Virginia down to Georgia and into Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Recent projects for clients included research in Tennessee, Missouri, Virginia, Illinois, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, British India, Ireland, Britain and Australia. I have unearthed family roots where the client knew nothing more than a 20th century name and death information as the starting point. I love a good challenge!

Some sources I routinely use are online databases, online and physical archives, land records, wills and estates documents, tax records (both personal property and land), military service records, pensions and bounty land records, historical and local genealogical society resources, manuscript materials and published books. For DNA research I also use a GenMatch and results from all of the major testing companies including AncestryDNA, 23andMe, LivingDNA, MyHeritageDNA and FamilyTreeDNA.

With my professional background in technology, I love to make use of age wide range of tools available to best convey the family story. Let me help you break down your brick walls, find the land that your ancestor lived on, or just tell their story. Let me make your family history come alive.

As a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, I follow their Code Of Ethics. I am also in the process of pursuing certification with the Board for the Certification of Genealogists’. I adhere to BCG’s Genealogy Standards and Code of Ethics in all of my work.

While each project goal and end product is unique, the research process is standardized. I will work with you to determine a focused research question. Then I will send you a letter of agreement summarizing the work engagement, schedule and planned repositories to be used. If there are any delays (generally due to physical document ordering) I will keep you informed of what is happening. Once the research block is complete, I will provide a formal Research Report fully citing all sources used and my detailed analysis of both the sources and the information yielded. Where allowed by copyright, either partial or full document images will also be provided. Where appropriate, I will include a family tree, map(s), tables or other unique methods of conveying the information.

I truly enjoy helping others learn about their family’s path to this new world and their connection to the old one. Please consider me to shepherd your family history project.