Full steam ahead 

It all started when…

…a friend who was adopted wanted to identify his birth parents. He had limited information about them, but he knew that he had a twin brother who died at birth. This led him all the way from Florida to Pennsylvania in search of his biological family history. Sure enough, he located the first clue - his biological parents’ names - in the records of the funeral home that coordinated the burial of his twin. I helped him build his family tree and discovered their history through federal and state records, and also newspaper articles, burial records, and yearbooks. One cousin even lived in the same neighborhood as one of his children! Because of my research, he has connections with his new relatives and continues to discover new ones.

That was twenty three years ago, and I have been a genealogy researcher ever since. I hone my research skills and increase my knowledge by constantly tackling new puzzles and with continuing education through conferences, seminars, webinars, and scholarly journals. On top of two decades of experience in genealogy research, I completed the Genealogical Research Certificate Program at Boston University. This certificate course tests competence in advanced research methods, forensic genealogy, evaluating and documenting evidence, and adhering to professional standards.

As a professional genealogist, I adhere to the standards defined by the Board for Certification of Genealogists BCG standards. I am a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and I adhere to their Code of Ethics and Professional Practices Ethics.

When I’m not doing genealogy research for clients, I’m researching my own family. Over the past few years, I have incorporated DNA test results in solving genealogy puzzles. The combination of traditional research and DNA results is a very powerful tool!

It’s an absolute pleasure to see the wonder and delight that people experience when reading a report, studying a family tree, or examining a document that tells the story of their ancestors. I am honored to get to know the families of my clients. Even though they are not my relatives, I am just as fascinated by their stories as my own, and just as committed to bringing them to life.

examples of past PROJECTS

A young woman from Ireland came to America and settled in Pennsylvania in 1867. A combination of traditional evidence and DNA results revealed that she was born in County Mayo in 1847, known as Black ’47, the worst year of the Irish Potato Famine.

Vital records from the New York City Municipal Archives and the New Jersey State Archives and newspaper articles helped solve the mystery of what happened to a mother of nine children who seemingly disappeared after 1880.

A combination of traditional evidence and DNA results located a man from a colonial family in New Jersey of whom the family had lost track. He moved to Illinois in 1850 where he married twice, had ten children, and became a respected and wealthy land owner.

A man with a very common name was born in Ireland in 1866, and by 1895 he had married in New York City and settled there. No U.S. records, documents, or newspapers specified his place of birth in Ireland, but U.S. census records, Catholic parish registers, vital records, probate records, and newspapers were used to identify his siblings, who had also emigrated to New York City. An obituary for one of the siblings noted his birthplace as County Galway, Ireland, and his estate papers tied everything together with a list of relatives in the U.S. and Ireland. The information in U.S. records was correlated with Irish Catholic marriage and baptism records and Irish birth records to identify their parish and townland in Galway.

Scottish and English baptism and marriage records told the story of a family of cotton mill workers with Irish roots who moved to Scotland in the 1820s and then to England in the 1840s. From there, they traveled to America in the 1850s. Census records revealed their path in America from Newport, Rhode Island to the Catskill Mountains in New York as they found work in cotton mills.

An infant abandoned on a Connecticut doorstep in 1908 was adopted by a local couple whose own infant had recently died. Years of DNA analysis by a grandson identified likely surnames of the child’s biological parents but not the specific individuals with those names. A fresh perspective and a review of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey newspapers, city directories, birth records, court records, and a fleeting reference to a previous marriage, identified the correct ancestral couple.

Twentieth-century ship passenger lists quickly identified the birthplaces in Poland of the ancestors of a woman who was just about to depart for a vacation in Poland.

A boy who was born in Philadelphia in 1856 to Scottish parents was orphaned by age 9. Between then and when he settled in New York City many years later, his whereabouts were unknown as were his parents’ places of birth in Scotland. Baptism records, census records, marriage records, death records, burial records, estate records, and newspaper accounts from the U.S., England, and Scotland, and a Philadelphia naturalization record from 1838, filled in the blanks. The boy was named as the sole beneficiary in his father’s will which instructed his assets be used for his son’s education. The boy was sent to England where he lived with his uncle and was educated. He returned to Philadelphia, married in Virginia, and settled in New York City.

Irish court and prison records and newspaper articles told the story of the son of a tenant farmer, born in County Galway in 1842, who was found guilty of manslaughter. He served six years in prison and then emigrated to America. Census records showed his journey through New York and the Midwest. Homestead records showed that he settled in Nebraska, where he became a successful cattle rancher.

education

• Bachelor of Arts, Art History, Minor Medieval Studies, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

• Certificate in Genealogical Research, Boston University

member

• Association of Professional Genealogists

• National Genealogical Society

• Genealogical Society of New Jersey

• New England Historic Genealogical Society

• New York Genealogical and Biographical Society

• Irish Genealogical Research Society