I am a 5th generation Californian whose Puritan/Congregationalist family came to the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies on one side – and who just came to America in the early 20th Century on the other. I grew up in Austin, Texas, but am a descendant of the Jackson / Strong / Bates clan that settled the Sacramento County, California area, the
Scottish Catholic plumbers union of Long Island who rabble-roused in New York, and the Yiddish theater people who came to New York from Polish Russia and eventually migrated to California.

 

I am a recovering lawyer and a long-time marketing consultant, editor, and entrepreneur. I was looking for a new, interesting client and doing genealogy on the side when I had a "Eureka!" moment.  I have so much fun telling stories and researching family trees, why not do it full time? And Backtrackers Genealogy was born. 

I have been married 30+ years to a 6th generation Texan whose Scottish and English family came to the American South as indentured servants. I can trace all sides of his family tree to America before 1700 – and a couple of branches in England back to the 15th Century. In Texas, his Adams / Gilkey family farmed Forney, his Burns family settled Cuero, and his Peters / Wilcox family helped build Bryan. 

We now live in Georgetown, Texas, where I work with Backtrackers Genealogy to help others chase down their families' pasts, examine the legacies they are leaving for the future, and determine how they want to be remembered.

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