Your family tree is huge, and the upper branches are hidden.  You have two parents, four grandparents, and eight great-grandparents, and on and on. You only have to go back 15 generations, for there to be well over 65,000 direct ancestors in your tree!  We all know the identities of some of our ancestors, and have clues about some of the earlier ones.

WHAT I DO

Your family tree is not just a collection of names, dates, and notations about relationships: it is a history of your family.

Your ancestors were real people with homes, families, jobs, neighbors, varied life experiences, happy times and hard times, sometimes tragedies.  They lived in communities, married, raised children, and possibly served in the military.  They may have been famous....or not.  They may have traveled widely....or not.  They may have been aware of, or even involved in, what was going on in the world around them...or not. 

The point is that they were real, three dimensional men and women, not simply names and dates, and they had stories. There are clues to these stories, sometimes easy to find, sometimes frustratingly elusive.  We all have lots of questions about these ancestors.  Who were they? Where did they come from...and why?  What did they do for a living?  What were their families like?  What were their communities like, and what was going on in the world that might have had an impact on their lives?

My approach is pretty simple, actually.  I extensively explore resources having possible information about each ancestor, their family and their surroundings. After that, I try to weave this information into a series of stories about the ancestral line.  The goal is to bring these ancestors "to life" for their descendants, and to make the stories readable and interesting.

ABOUT ME

DB Brown, Ph.D.

Family Research Specialist

I have over 40 years of serious genealogical experience.  This includes first hand research in archives, public records offices, cemeteries, churches, and libraries.  I've spent extensive time all over the United States, Sweden, England, Ireland (including Northern Ireland), and Norway, searching for, and examining sources of family records.