I earned my bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and my master’s and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.  I taught college for twenty-five years until I decided it was time to pursue another passion: family history research.

I became involved in genealogy about a dozen years ago.  At first, I focused on my own family’s stories, but gradually began doing genealogy for friends.  I found this work so rewarding that I eventually realized I would like to turn it into a profession.  Thus, I founded “Find Your Family: Riley Genealogy Service.”

Now, I want to help you find your own family, to discover where your people came from, and to understand the diverse paths their lives took.  I have seen how immensely rewarding this can be as people learn, for the first time, the names and dates and places of their ancestors, and even better, personal details about their lives and loves, their challenges and their accomplishments.

Repositories
College of St. Benedict and St. John's University, MN Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, SJU, MN St. Cloud State University, MN Stearns [County] History Museum, St. Cloud, MN

Research Time Periods

• 20th Century
• 19th Century

Affiliations
Irish Genealogical Society International Iowa Genealogical Society Minnesota Genealogical Society Minnesota Historical Society Nebraska State Genealogical Society National Genealogical Society Norwegian-American Genealogical Association Norwegian American Genealogical Center Norwegian-American Historical Association Red River Valley Genealogical Society South Dakota Genealogical Society Wisconsin Historical Society Wisconsin State Genealogical Society

Degrees
PhD and MA from the University of California-Berkeley and BA from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.