About Me
...and genealogy
I was born and raised in the state of Massachusetts. I was 3 months old when I was adopted into a close Irish family. My adoptive mother raised me with stories about her many relatives, but my father knew little about his heritage. I don't remember exactly when I first became interested in genealogy, but I was always interested in those family stories and wondered about my father's lack of relatives.
One day, I watched my parents as they huddled over a piece of paper on which was written a list of names, in chart form, of my mother's family. Little did I know at the time that the product of their diligent scribbling would form the basis of this research!
I began my research in earnest in the 1980's, after my father's death and a move to Canada. My husband bought me a DOS version of Family Tree Maker for Christmas shortly after we purchased our second desktop computer. The internet was in its infancy at that time. There were very few Internet Service Providers available, but once we got our computer set up and began to surf the web, my research began to accumulate exponentially.
Unfortunately, at the time there were no websites to guide me in the proper research procedures. After a short time, I realized that I needed that guidance. So, I made a visit to the local library where I learned that I needed to organize and document my research. Now, most of that information can easily be found on a variety of websites, but, at the time, there were no "point and click" answers!
The computer has become an essential part of my research, allowing me instant access to my data and has made researching long-distance much easier. With the advent of online databases, I am now able to access information that I had previously had to go to the National Archives to unearth!
Not content to just "surf", I taught myself HTML and posted my first website in 1998. This is the first major overhaul of the site since then. I'm still learning, so please let me know if you run into any inconsistencies!
