About Us
Family History enthusiast with over 24 years of research experience.
LIFELONG PASSION FOR ANCESTRAL RESEARCH
I started developing an interest in finding my ancestors at about the age of ten. During the 80s, there were not any research tools available that I could utilize, so it was put on hold for about a decade. I purchased my first computer in 1996 and then I was off and running. After the first 3,000 hours of learning and developing my skills, I became moderately proficient with research. During the next 5,000 hours, I felt like I was getting pretty good. For the last fifteen years, I have actually been productive with it. In addition to working on my own family, I started helping other people with their families twenty years ago, and I have found that very rewarding.
I am a seventh generation Idahoan, so I love doing research in Idaho, but I am also an avid American history buff. I have done a lot of research for 17th Century New England, and then followed the 18th and 19th Century westward migrations. Through helping others, I have done research for all 50 states. Family vacations always include stopping at cemeteries or libraries.
My last ancestors to arrive in the States immigrated from Prussia and Germany in 1927 and 1929. Another family line came from Switzerland in the 1880s. I had ignored these lines for a lot of years because I did not know very much German. Ten years ago, I decided to dive into them and I have been very pleased with the results. I’ve added about 5,000 German speaking family members to my file recently.
My family has enjoyed the transition into German research. Instead of boring them with trips to cemeteries, we have now traveled to Germany, Switzerland, Czechia, and Poland – research for me, and vacation for them. We were able to meet some of my Grandma’s cousins while we were there.
It’s hard to put into words all of the reasons that I enjoy ancestral research. An overly simplified reason is that I respect my parents and grandparents and am pleased with how I was raised. I wanted to learn more about their parents and how they shaped all of our lives. I had the privilege of knowing five of my great grandparents and they were pretty alright too. Being really young at the time, it’s hard to fully comprehend that great grandparents used to be kids like me. It has been fun to learn more about them over the years.
We were lucky enough to have a five generation photo taken with my great grandma Bert (Bertha Lucille Bybee Stimpson).
My Grandpa was always interested in having a book compiled about his Bybee cousins. He was extremely busy working on the farm, but through his prodding, one of his cousins compiled a Bybee book for the family.
That has become an inspiration for me. There are so many people, like my Grandpa, who wish to own a book like that, but they don’t have the time or knowledge to be able to put one together. After completing heritage books and presenting them, the look on client’s faces is very rewarding. Like my Grandpa, I know they will cherish them for the rest of their lives.
Having a large family has created some unique situations. Pictured here are my brother, cousin, and son all born within the same week!! I have seven siblings, and on my paternal side, there are six aunts and two uncles. My aunt, middle, is one year older than I am. Everyone was still having kids after this picture was taken, so I also have a sister who is younger than my daughter…she still has to call her Aunt though ; )
Portrait Pedigree Chart
I credit my wife for the development of these charts. She would see me clicking through my genealogy file, PAF or Ancestral Quest at the time, and said that everything just looked like a blur to her. She didn’t understand how I could look at the names and make sense of it all. She needed something more visual. I looked for programs that would print out a wall chart similar to this, but I just couldn’t find anything I liked that would fit all of the pictures on it. I started making my own. After going through a few versions over the years, this is what I have on my wall now. This one starts with my maternal great grandparents and goes back to fifth great grandparents. I have one for my paternal side and a descendancy chart starting with my grandparents that includes all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews.
I have made about a dozen of these for other people now. Collecting pictures is a different process than gathering genealogical information. To complete my charts, I spent years writing to distant cousins trying to track down the pictures. I enjoy working on these for other people, but it is a slow, ongoing process that can take a very long time to complete. I say that my charts are “complete” because most of my ancestors without pictures died before photography was prevalent in their areas. However, I am still constantly looking and am hopeful to find more.
