How I became a genealogist

Many people ask me how I became a genealogist so here is the story:

When I was about 10 or 11 years old a teacher assigned a school project to do our own family tree. I was instantly hooked. I called my grandmother, who pulled out an old family bible which had the names of each generation of women only! going back 4 generations from my great-grandmother, and she told me what family history she knew.

I was fascinated and practiced with a family tree of the royal family, peerage, and so on. Back then PCs were new (Vic20s were all the rage) and the internet was not in public use, so genealogy was done with books and paper, hand-drawn charts, etc.

I viewed reels of microfilm at the local libraries Special Collections, for census and tax lists, newspapers on so on.

Years later when I was able to get internet access at home I began moving all my work onto my computer, and joined mailing lists, and searched the internet for clues, joined Ancestry.com etc. I had never imagined so many genealogists existed!

A bit later I began working as an indexer of census etc documents and awhile later as a professional genealogist taking client work.

For almost two years with Expert Connect on Ancestry.com I worked with clients there.

I do genealogy nearly 365 days a year and I never become bored or tired of it! I am thrilled to make my living doing what I love.