George and Merle at the L.A. zoo, 1920s

Several months after I sent my DNA test, to 23andme, I received an email telling me I have a second cousin. She was more closely related to me than the myriad third to sixth cousins that are on my DNA relatives, so I dropped her a line. Fortunately, she responded. Soon I learned that my cousin was likely related to my mother, who had been adopted back in the 1920s in L.A. Thus, my genealogy journey began...

Since then, I've spent hundreds of hours engaged in my newfound passion. I research and build family trees, and I analyze the family trees of my DNA relatives to find common ancestors. I identified the families of my mother's biological parents, and I have begun to learn the stories of all my ancestors. Here, I hope to share these stories, methods, and research, with family and genealogy enthusiasts.

In future blogs, I will share research tips and family stories. My father's ancestors hail from the south, emigrating from the United Kingdom and Denmark and migrating to the Southern United States. My California born mother's ancestors migrated from Indiana and Kansas. I do my research person by person, and I am excited to write about what I learn, from the story of the indentured servant and pastry chef Richard Mynatt (who was indentured to Robert E. Lee's grandfather Phillip) to the tightly knit community of Winfield, Alabama, to the work of Vin Taylor, early Hollywood Set Decorator.

If you are a family member or DNA relative, please drop me a line if you are interested in connecting with Google Drive, where I store research papers, records, and the beginning of a photo collection.