The Intrepid Sleuth • Dauntless Detective of the Dearly Departed

Michael Metcalf, Our English Immigrant Dude

I’m here in Norwich, England, the town where our 9th Great Grandfather and immigrant, Michael Metcalf, moved to as a young man. Here he married, engaged in business, and started a large family. Michael thrived in Norwich for almost twenty years before the ever shifting religious scene resulted in his being persecuted for refusing to […]

Ohio Infantryman

I’m not one to read another person’s diary, let alone shout its contents to the world. A diary is the first-person account of someone’s life, often written as the last act of the day, the diarist alone, in reflection, settling into the quiet night. It’s intimate, just the writer and the page, the writer deftly […]

Mention Cyndi’s List, I’m There! On Saturday, Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi’s List fame presented a whole day of genealogical enrichment at Colorado Genealogical Society‘s sold out spring seminar (which I am informed was really a joint effort between them and their CIG). I don’t know if they lucked into her or if she just always […]

Death Slaps Me, Hard For the first time since I’ve become the family genealogist, we had a death in the family. I mean a close death, one that deeply affected those nearest to me. The death was swift, unexpected, and heart-breaking. I suddenly found myself back in my old desert town, surrounded by a large, devastated […]

Tree Newbie

Tree Newbie Here

Mama said, “I’m leaving you the family tree.” In 1997, my mom started our family tree by arranging to receive Family Tree Maker Version 4.0 for Christmas. (Remember the colorful, HUGE boxes with the fold open front flap they’d pack a couple of CDs and a thin manual into?) I think it was her first, […]

If you attended RootsTech 2015 and you wandered into the Expo Hall past the heavily staffed, glitzy showcases found front and center, you may have noticed a few vendors (GenMarketplace, ancestorcloud, and RootsBid) promoting and demonstrating something you may have never heard of – an “online genealogy marketplace”. Don’t worry your pretty heads, that’s nothing […]

RootsTech 2015 Review (sorta)

Am back home from attending my first RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City and it was quite a trip. The compound name of it had caught my eye several months ago- “Roots” and “tech”, two of my favorite things, right? I’m an amateur genealogist with a software background. I love researching my family, both online […]

This is my first blog. I’m adopting this “Intrepid Sleuth” persona and starting to put my recent adventures into the wonderful realm of genealogy into a blog for a couple of main reasons: To share our family tree and family history discoveries with my peeps and anyone else who might find it interesting. To share […]