• Family History Research

I am a genealogical researcher with 50 years of experience conducting original, source-based family history research, working primarily as an independent researcher throughout that time. I am bilingual in Spanish and English, and I read old Spanish-language records and handwriting directly from original sources.

My research spans two family lines. Since the 1980s, I have researched Spanish-language genealogy across Mexico and Central America, working directly with original civil and church records in Spanish, including reading period handwriting and record-keeping conventions from those regions.

Since the mid-1990s, I have also conducted deep primary-source research into Bohemian (Czech) genealogy, tracing a direct ancestral line from the Chrudim and Nymburk districts of Bohemia forward to a 19th-century emigrant ancestor. This work involves systematic, image-by-image reading of parish registers held at the Czech regional state archives, including baptism, marriage, and death registers, prenuptial protocols, and manorial estate records. I maintain rigorous sourcing standards — every finding is tied to a specific register and image number, with a clear distinction maintained between confirmed primary-source findings and inferred or hypothesized connections.

A distinctive element of my current practice is the use of AI as a research assistant. I use AI tools to help process and enhance historical register images, organize and cross-reference findings across many registers, track research state across long-running multi-generational investigations, and write small programs that automate repetitive parts of the research process — for example, bulk-downloading register images from archive portals rather than saving each page by hand. AI does not serve as a source of genealogical fact in my work; it is a tool for managing the scale and complexity of exhaustive primary-source research, similar to how a researcher might use a database or indexing system, but with the added capacity for image processing, automation, and pattern recognition across large volumes of handwritten records.

• 21st Century
• 20th Century
• 19th Century
• 18th Century
• 17th Century