ABOUT

In 1990, at the age of 21, while in college, my cousin, Harold Gene Solomon, shared all the family history research he'd been compiling. He was retired and had been doing genealogy for many years and even drove around to different places in the USA to do research at courthouses. He taught me everything he knew.  I found the Family History Research Center  in Houston, Texas where I spent many afternoons after classes just digging through their files and asking questions.  There was no internet at that time. Harold Gene was wonderfully obsessed, and got me hooked fast. I took a leave of absence from my job that summer and started my own travels. I drug my mother and my elderly grandmother to Arkansas and had a blast looking for what a resident said was the oldest cemetery in the area. I should have brought my hiking boots and not my poor grandmother.  

I bought the very first Family Tree Maker program to keep track of each person in my family tree. I've been doing genealogy ever since. I did however go on to finish college. And thankfully with the advent of the internet the world was open to me. And every year more and more files get loaded online for us to do more and more. I got to build on all that Harold Gene had given me and build my mother's side of my tree as well.

In the last 10 years I had dozens friends asking me to help them and refer others to me as well. And about 5 years ago I joined a volunteer group online to help adoptees and others find biological family members. With the addition of DNA to help in research so much is possible now.

Its so rewarding to get to help others. I love the stories I find in every tree I build. And when I'm blessed to help someone find a missing biological parent or sibling its like I'm part of their family. I can vividly remember the first one I found. It was 4:00 am and I had to wake my husband to tell him "I FOUND HER." And since then I've had several "I've found them" moments. It bring so much joy. Of course not all are joyous occasions but most are. It could take moments to find someone or it could take years. But I don't give up. And to bring that joy to others is priceless.