Hello!

How It Started

My genealogy journey began more than 40 years ago with a college paper—a simple assignment to build a family tree and share some information about my family. What was initially a straightforward exercise turned into a lifelong passion. I’ve never stopped researching, and I’ve never stopped being amazed by what I’ve found.

What I've Learned Along the Way

Over the decades, I've traced my own family's roots across the United States and overseas to France, England, Germany, and Czechia. Every branch of the tree has taught me something new, and it’s been fascinating to learn about the people who helped make me who I am today. I've uncovered stories that broke my heart, and others that showed me how strong, resilient, and courageous my ancestors were. That's the thing about family history: it's rarely simple, and it's almost never boring.

I’ve learned some Latin so I could make sense of old church records, dusted off my high school and college French to work through records in France, spent time researching at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and traveled to county courthouses and small-town libraries in the United States where my ancestors lived, walking the same land they once farmed and holding the same records they once signed.

My Strengths

I am particularly good with languages. For my lifelong career, I worked as an editor and writer for various corporations, so I am very comfortable with writing. I have a strong background in document production, so generating a genealogical document that includes pictures, charts, text, and other elements is right up my alley. I am also tenacious, stubborn, and diligent, so I don’t give up when it seems like there is no information on an ancestor. I just keep looking… and I usually find something! And lastly, through my 40 years of genealogical research, I’ve found information in surprising places and in innovative ways. This “thinking outside the box” approach enables me to find information that can really bring an ancestor to life.

Why I Do This Work

There's something powerful about understanding the people whose choices, struggles, and resilience led, generations later, to me. I want this same insight for all of my clients: not just a list of names and dates, but a real sense of who your ancestors were and the lives they lived.