User:GoAncestry

Welcome!

I recently applied to become an editor and moderator for Family Search. I absolutely love being part of a broader effort and a larger team. I always learn more and have a more rewarding experience when working with others. I am somewhat driven in life and genealogy provides me with an endless array of things to do.

Genealogical Background and Focus:

I have been pursuing a number of ancestral lines over the past years. These efforts have taken me into Danish and Swedish church records which I found fascinating as I discovered various historical events that exposed themselves through the records I was reading. I also spent a great deal of time looking through American resources to trace my family. In one branch I have even gone as far back as pre-revolutionary times, and unfortunately a brick wall that I have been working on for over three years now.

With some of my spare time I have volunteered with an organization called the Palatines to America and am the current Vice President (Dec 2016). I also work with two local organizations in Maryland that focus on regional research and the other uses the internet for distance collaboration. This second group is called German Ancestral Studies and we enjoy the hunt, and finding, for immigration links between various countries. Most of my efforts focus upon German speaking ancestors, but I have been able to dust off some of my past language experience to work in Danish, Polish, or other languages as needed. I am by no means an expert, but I still find the discovery so much fun.

Life experience, languages, etc.:

I have been very fortunate that my life's experiences seemingly have prepared me for the genealogical research that I am conducting today. I joined the US Army many years ago as I wanted to "see" Europe. I was fortunate enough to have lived in various locations of Europe for almost 13 years. While I primarily lived in Germany, I was again fortunate that my job focused on translating and working with languages. Over the years I was able to develop a moderate proficiency in German and Polish, with a bit of Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, and Arabic-Iraqi thrown in for good measure. I also began working with computers and websites around 1995 and have quite a background in developing and maintaining webpages and forums on the internet.