I have been researching my own and others' family histories for over 20 years. I am an expert in Irish, German & English immigration, as well as research in Colonial New England, Colonial Virginia, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, Upstate New York, New York City, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennesse, Texas, and Virginia. I specialize in finding a family's "black sheep" and also pinpointing the exact plots of land in Ireland farmed by our ancestors in the 1850s & 1860s.
I have also recently become an expert in DNA analysis, and I am now using DNA in cutting-edge ways to solve research problems that were unsolvable only a few years ago! For example, I have used DNA analysis to find the ancestral villages of a client's Irish ancestors who fled Ireland in 1848 during the Great Famine. I have also used DNA to prove the lineage of a collateral relative of George Washington, and to prove and disprove many other clients' lineages. I have also used DNA analysis, coupled with traditional genealogical research, to find the birth parents of adoptees.
I have discovered the following:
Previously unknown Mayflower ancestors
Two Puritan witches, both of them tried for witchcraft and acquitted
A female American spy for the British during the Revolution
A soldier who died at Valley Forge
Using DNA, adoptees' birth parents
Using DNA, the ancestral villages of Irish Famine immigrants
Civil War soldiers with questionable service records
Slaves and slave holders
Mixed-race children of couples who were unable to marry in the era of miscegenation
A bigamy conviction with a sentence of one year in jail
A man who "jumped bail" on a charge of "getting a woman with child, he not being her husband"
Previously unknown divorces
"Shotgun" marriages
Out-of-wedlock births
Deaths of unknown spouses & children
The exact plots of land farmed by Irish ancestors in Ireland in the 1850s & 1860s
I have a B.A., summa cum laude, in Political Science (1985) from S.U.N.Y. at Fredonia, and a J.D. (1991) from the University of Virginia School of Law. I worked in government relations for 25 years, 15 of them running my own consulting firm. I am a member of the Virginia State Bar and I serve on the Board of the Fairfax Genealogical Society, where I also serve as the editor of the award-winning newsletter.