I have been actively researching my ancestry for 35 years now.  I am a melting pot American.  My ancestors emigrated from England, Wales, Germany and Bohemia to Ohio, Pennsylvania & New York between 1848 and 1886.  Their arrival is sufficiently recent that my grandparents knew the names of the towns from whence their ancestors came.  I have been fortunate to visit England, Wales and Germany to visit some of the towns my ancestors called home.  Key surnames for which I have large amounts of data are: Attride, Bassett, Broemel, Seckel, Weidenthal and Yeatman.  Searching for them has taught me about British records, German Church records and Bohemian Jewish records.

My wife, Sherry’s ancestry goes back 200+ years in Virginia (to North Carolina and then SW Virginia and eastern Kentucky) and includes several Revolutionary War veterans (George Cress, James Dejarnette and Samuel Howard (sometimes spelled Hoard).  Key surnames for which I have large amounts of data are:  Cress, Dejarnette, Garrison, Jessup, Kilbourne, Sizemore and Vernon  I also have some experience with DNA testing.