Hello World!

How the Bug Bit…

If I had been told five years ago, I’d be starting a genealogy services business I’d have totally spit my wine in your face. I’m not kidding. But here I am today after becoming obsessed with genealogy about ten years ago. It all started on my friend’s sofa in NYC while I waited for her to come home from work. I’d never imagined something so benign as a random email from Ancestry.com taking me on this journey. My grandmother, I am sure, is proud of me. The sad part though is that I didn’t catch the bug while she was still here. Fortunately, she left a lot of documentation and a delightful story to tell.

Speaking of my grandmother, this image is of her. Of course, I had to honor her in some way and why not my very first post. My grandmother was the matriarch of the Reif family and the family historian. She lived in the same home her whole life. My grandfather moved in when they married, and it is where they spent their entire lives, raised their family, and farmed the land. It was built by her ancestors with their bare hands and horses. I lived on that farm and I love that farm. It is in my father’s hands now.

I mentioned a delightful story and I would like to share it with you. It was the first story in my genealogy research of my family where I said aloud “WOW!” I had discovered a secret that my grandmother and grandfather kept their whole lives. It was me who discovered it about 75 years later and 10 years after my grandmother’s death. I could find no instance of her ever talking about it in any of her research or records. What is it?

My grandparents eloped to Indiana a month before their public wedding in their hometown with friends and family in attendance. Yup, they were married twice, in two states and never told a soul. Then I came along. I am SURE my grandmother had a good laugh on that one and oh how I wish I knew the story of it. I can only guess though. My guess? These two good “Lutheran” kids were antsy for some hanky panky. Yep, for amour.

A photograph of my grandparents in their late 40s shows my grandmother still all kinds of giddy over my grandfather. Learning that secret gave me a whole new perspective on my grandparents.

Images of the official wedding day, Indiana marriage certificate and the Michigan wedding certificate…

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Be a professional… or just have fun?

Now, not everyone has a secret story in their ancestry or a famous or more intriguing infamous person or royalty. The thing is though, you never know! I think that is that part that keeps me looking deeper and deeper and it doesn’t even have to be my own family. I have always been nosey and loved history and now I have genealogy that satiates both of those appetites! The thing about genealogy is that you never know where an interesting story will be discovered.

When I thought that just perhaps, I could make this another business (photography is my other at Misti Layne)I knew I needed experience and a good education. Genealogy is odd in that you need to know a little about a lot and then you can learn a lot about something more specific. I went to RootsTech for the first time and was overwhelmed with just how massive the industry is. It was overwhelming. It was easy to see though that education was going to be important. My first crazy tree was fun and has 54,000 “people” in it BUT there were many a mistake. Why “people”? Because I did everything from mythical, biblical, Roman, Egyptian, Celtic and did officially hit some royal lines. I can’t explain how crazy some of these trees were. For a German Virgo this was just too much! Details are important. I could not make mistakes on someone else’s ancestry.

Professional Genealogist it is!

The decision was an easy one. I started online lessons after much debate with myself at National Institute for Genealogical Studies. The woman I chatted with about the school really sold the Institute versus other options I investigated. It took two years and while not rocket science, there was a lot of work, reading and a wide variety of courses to complete the American Records certificate. I obtained my PLCGS though! Over these past few years, friends have come to me with questions and it’s been a wonderful experience to do research for them and challenge myself in the real world.

I’ve been working on this project for a while now and thanks to a pandemic, have some time on my hands so, et voila, Picture the Past Genealogy is born to provide genealogy services to people in need. I cannot wait for the challenges, to learn new stories, learn new history, make a client smile or say “wow”, (Yes, I totally watch all the ancestry shows for the record.) and show someone something that they maybe never knew. But all of this brings a picture, literally and figuratively, of people, places, stories, and histories to life and for me, it is beyond exciting.

So, I hope to share my genealogy services and stories with you. I look forward to this journey and sharing my abilities to help others create a picture of their ancestors and the stories they kept too.

Cheers from Misti and my new genealogy services, Picture the Past Genealogy! (Read “about me” for some additional history.)