Currently accepting clients for...

• Family History Research
• Writing /Publishing
• Other Speciality

I'm a genealogist who also cleans and maintains grave sites and digitizes photos and video.

I’ve been interested in history and research my whole life, probably because I grew up in old houses with interesting histories. It was rumored that a previous owner of my grandma’s farm passed away tragically sometime during the 1920s. No one knew if that was true, or what his name might have been. One summer break from college, I set out to discover his identity. After countless hours scrolling through newspapers on microfiche, pouring through deeds in a cramped county office, and submitting record requests, I was able to confirm his name and how he died.

During the process, I fell in love with uncovering the past. In the 25 years since that summer, I have written a book on the history of our farm and another on my family’s genealogy as far back as 1700s Bohemia. I am currently working on a third book in which I trace my husband’s family to their Puritan roots and beyond.

As I researched my family history, I became interested in locating all my local relatives’ burial locations. Several markers were unreadable due to lichen, some had sunken underground, and others were stained with rust. After conducting research on industry standards for cleaning gravestones, I have now cleaned and mapped hundreds of markers in multiple states using a safe solution specifically designed for gravestone cleaning.

In addition to my own work, I’ve completed many projects for clients, including the following:

- tracked down a great-grandfather’s second family in Puerto Rico
- uncovered the truth about a murder from 1920
- documented every owner of a house from the time it was built
- compiled the family tree of a formerly enslaved woman in Mississippi
- scanned and edited thousands of photos
- traced the history of an immigrant’s invented surname
- located where a family member immigrated to after boarding the wrong ship in 1913

I would be honored to help you preserve your own family’s history, solve a family mystery, or care for your loved ones’ final resting spots.

Geographic Specialities
Chicago
Wisconsin
Michigan
Czechia

Additional specialities or search keywords
digitization, gravestones

Research Time Periods

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

Honorifics/Credentials
Studied with Boston University's Genealogy program

Affiliations
Czech and Slovak American Genealogy Society of Illinois
Illinois State Genealogical Society

Degrees
M.A., Communication