Generation X professional field archaeologist, amateur writer/blogger/genealogist/historian, and major history nerd, based in the Pacific NW. Two MAs in Mediaeval European history from British universities, and a compulsion to research and document everything.

My maternal grandmother, Dorothy Jean (McKeehan) Swenson, was a hobby genealogist in the late 70s and early 80s. She gathered a lot of information for her branch of the family (see: McKeehan-Armstrong virtual cemetery), before she passed away in 1983 when I was not quite 5. As the oldest grandchild, I inherited her research files. I did not appreciate them at the time, but when I was 14, I caught the bug. I've been doing genealogy off and on ever since.

At one point, I had amassed a tree with thousands of ancestors, stretching back centuries, but a lot of it was unverified, so I ended up deleting everything more than 10 generations back. I'd rather focus on my more recent, more easily verified ancestors. Anything further back than that has already probably been covered by someone else anyway. I'm currently (2018) in the process of dusting off my family file, following a several-year "break", and methodically collecting as much original documentation as I can for each person, using only free online sources.

My primary interests are in collecting family stories and photos, which I hope to share widely with all descendants of common ancestors. After all, these folks belong to all of us! Knowing what they looked like and some of the things they did can help them seem more real and closer to us. I'm proud to say that I have managed to collect at least digital copies of photos of most of my ancestors as far back as my g-g-g-grandparents, as well as several of their siblings and additional spouses.

My most treasured family heirlooms are my g-g-g-grandmother Bridget Ellen (McCoy) Martin's wedding ring, and my g-g-grandmother Annie Maria (Howard) Van Horn's frontier diaries.

Generation X professional field archaeologist, amateur writer/blogger/genealogist/historian, and major history nerd, based in the Pacific NW. Two MAs in Mediaeval European history from British universities, and a compulsion to research and document everything.

My maternal grandmother, Dorothy Jean (McKeehan) Swenson, was a hobby genealogist in the late 70s and early 80s. She gathered a lot of information for her branch of the family (see: McKeehan-Armstrong virtual cemetery), before she passed away in 1983 when I was not quite 5. As the oldest grandchild, I inherited her research files. I did not appreciate them at the time, but when I was 14, I caught the bug. I've been doing genealogy off and on ever since.

At one point, I had amassed a tree with thousands of ancestors, stretching back centuries, but a lot of it was unverified, so I ended up deleting everything more than 10 generations back. I'd rather focus on my more recent, more easily verified ancestors. Anything further back than that has already probably been covered by someone else anyway. I'm currently (2018) in the process of dusting off my family file, following a several-year "break", and methodically collecting as much original documentation as I can for each person, using only free online sources.

My primary interests are in collecting family stories and photos, which I hope to share widely with all descendants of common ancestors. After all, these folks belong to all of us! Knowing what they looked like and some of the things they did can help them seem more real and closer to us. I'm proud to say that I have managed to collect at least digital copies of photos of most of my ancestors as far back as my g-g-g-grandparents, as well as several of their siblings and additional spouses.

My most treasured family heirlooms are my g-g-g-grandmother Bridget Ellen (McCoy) Martin's wedding ring, and my g-g-grandmother Annie Maria (Howard) Van Horn's frontier diaries.