Services

My main specialty is using DNA to get past genealogical roadblocks. Do you have a grandparent or great-grandparent whose origins just have you stumped despite searching high and low for documentary evidence? Are you curious about the identity of an adopted ancestor's biological parents? A lot of these mysteries can be solved relatively easily and affordably using a DNA test. In many of these unknown parentage cases, eight, ten or twelve hours is all that is required to achieve the research goal and to create a professional report presenting the results. Why pay thousands of dollars to large genealogy companies? I can help you reach your goal for several hundred!

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Another thing I do is to help people organize their information and to put it into chart form. Perhaps all your information is scattered on various pieces of paper or you do not have the time or the patience for computers (very understandable!). But you still want that chart displaying all your cousins, uncles and aunts or ancestors. I can help you do this. I will also keep my eyes open for possible errors while I'm at it. I especially enjoy making the so-called "fan" charts. These are the big round charts which display an incredible amount of information on your direct ancestors and can give you a very handy and impressive looking snapshot of your cultural background. See my portfolio for an example.

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I also do in-depth reconstruction of North American families in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although family trees on Ancestry.com are often very useful for clues, in my experience you have to go to the primary sources and look carefully in order to gain a more realistic picture of the family. This was certainly the case with my wife's Cole ancestors (see under my Portfolio). This type of research can be more involved and the research goals must be clearly understood beforehand so that no time or money is wasted. 

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Although I don't consider Dutch research my specialty, I am familiar with Dutch civil records from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and would be willing to deal with them if desired.

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My goal is to provide affordable solutions to genealogical problems which just do not require huge expenditures of money. However, there are numerous specialties in the genealogical field, including eighteenth century research and earlier, which are beyond my pay grade. If your genealogy goals require such specialists, I will point you to those who have the expertise!

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