Hi Friends of LGS!

I have started a blog so that we can all get to know each other a bit more, learn tips and tricks of researching our family trees, gather an understanding of the history of Linn County, and to present information on families of Linn County.

My goals with this blog are to interview members about their various genealogical undertakings, research the family history and other materials in the LGS library, and dig into the history of Linn County to help members develop a socio-historic picture of their families, and then post my findings on this blog. I envision a new blog once a month.

I know that you all are experts in many different areas related to families and the history of Linn County, and on how to conduct genealogy searches. I know that each one of you has something to offer that can be put in the blog for other LGS friends to read and gain something from. Knowing this, I am hoping that you will send me ideas for topics, or even specific information to be included in a blog, or maybe you would even like to write a post for our blog.  Just let me know!

A few bits of information about me: My mom encouraged my interest in family history so I started working on family genealogy when I was 16, that was 43 years ago! My mom, Mary Jane Landry Richards, would take me around New England to see presentations by Steven White and other Acadian and New England genealogists. Since then it has become something I have always been passionate about.  My career has been spent as a high school and university educator, and researcher for the United States government. My life has been spent in USA, Canada, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. With my youngest daughter getting ready to graduate from college, I decided about a year ago I should do what I always wanted to do,  that is, start my own research company.  I have put a lot of work into that and I am happy to say I was recently nominated as one of the Valley’s best new business! You can check out my site at the-research.com. I also do some contractual work with Record Click as a genealogy researcher and blogger. Besides volunteering with LGS, I also do volunteer work for Kijana Project, a project that assists children affected by HIV.

I am looking forward to meeting all the friends of LGS and I hope the blog becomes something we can all enjoy and learn something from!

Kim