There is a process to genealogy and it starts with you. What clues do you posses? What do you already know? What records and evidence do you already have? What stories do you remember being told as a child that might not be true but that could hold kernels of information? Do those family papers need physical or digital preservation or even cataloging? Getting as much as possible out of what you have is our first step. Sometimes what seems to be known turns out to be less than certain, other times piecing together existing evidence leads one a bit farther than believed possible.
When the preexisting evidence, ideas, hypothesis and stories are organized and understood, it is time to begin drawing on new sources, combining information, thinking things through and documenting the evidence and logic, all the time approaching the goal. In genealogy there are no guarantees but the journey is always an interesting one.
With longstanding passions for research, history, and language, I relish combining those interests. There is nothing like digging into the little quirks and forgotten details of history that just happened to touch an ancestral life. Sometimes those quirks are dramatic and eye-opening, other times they might be the odd curiosity that one never hears about in a history class. The merest hint in a document can point in directions both famous and infamous and lead down fascinating paths.
I pride myself in writing precise, understandable reports that give you the evidence and logic you need to really understand where the investigation has led. You get the citations and see the documents, maps and charts.