About

The story behind Passages Genealogy.

History became personal.

I’ve loved history for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I used to imagine what it would be like to meet the people I read about — Jesus, George Washington, Sequoyah, Henry VIII. The figures who shaped centuries.

And then one day it occurred to me: my own ancestors lived alongside those people. They were there too — not in the books, but in the world. They lived through the same wars, the same plagues, the same upheavals. They made choices I’d never know about that determined whether I’d exist at all.

To think back through the centuries — through every war, every illness, every hardship — and to realize that these people survived, somehow, some way, so that I could be born when I was, where I was, into the family I have… to me, that is nothing short of a miracle.

That’s when genealogy stopped being curiosity and became something deeper.

Twenty years of asking questions.

I’ve been researching my own family for the better part of two decades. In that time, I’ve come to know people I never could have met — ancestors who lived and died long before I was born, but who feel real to me now in ways I didn’t expect.

I’ve traced my paternal line back through generations my own father never knew. I found my second-great-grandfather, who fought in the Civil War, was captured and held as a prisoner of war at Vicksburg, and later served as a guard at Andersonville Prison. His story isn’t a comfortable one. But it’s mine. And learning it taught me something I carry into every project I take on now: the truth of a family’s story matters more than a clean version of it.

Further back, I found a 5x-great-grandfather who fought in the Revolutionary War. I’m still searching for the rest of his story — he’s my current brick wall — but he’s there, waiting. Like all of them are.

Why I do this for other families.

I started Passages Genealogy because I know what it feels like to wonder about people you came from but never met. Whether your questions come from adoption, immigration, family secrets, lost records, or simply the slow erosion of stories no one wrote down — I know many families carry questions about people they came from but never met.

Every family has gaps. Every family has questions. And every family has ancestors whose lives were richer, harder, and more interesting than a name and a date can ever convey.

I’d be honored to help you meet yours.