ABOUT

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The roots of Our Progenitors formed in 1995. As a former Tombstone, Arizona resident for many years, it was clear that the legendary town’s history was overwhelmingly devoted to the lore surrounding a thirty-second gunfight and the players involved. Admittedly, the event has been responsible for keeping the Old West legend on the map, serving as the basis of countless movies, novels, and historical treatises. These works have secured the town’s tourist trade since the 1920s, and sealed its place in history. 

But what about the rest of the townspeople? What about those who relocated to a once-bleak desert frontier, set up homes, established businesses, worked the silver mines, went into local politics, and so forth? They were not necessarily seeking (nor would ever attain) glory or notoriety.  But it was they – not the duelists – who founded and developed the town, opened up its economic resources, and attended to the everyday matters that encompass life. The outlet to remember these forgotten souls was found in researching and writing about the owners of the town’s historic homes and business structures.

· Researched scores of property histories, built the chain of title, wrote biographies about the owners, and established the year of construction.

· Found new primary and secondary sources of information at various repositories, and indexed other sources that had not been previously digitized or indexed.

· Transcribed over two thousand pages of civic records, as well as several early years of Cochise County delinquent tax records.

· Transcribed a nineteenth-century cavalry minutes book for the Army museum at Fort Huachuca.

· Provided historical information on a number of sites to an archaeology firm prior to the excavation of a major east-west communications cable trench.

· Interviewed by authors of Tombstone magazine articles and books.

After a hiatus for several years, and wishing to return to research, I left my job and completed the Boston University Center for Professional Education’s Online Program for Genealogical Research. Armed with a solid background in history, library science, and research methodology, I have begun my much-broadened work by conducting genealogical investigations of persons of various descents. Personally, my most rewarding work thus far has been (through research and DNA) to track down my birth family.  With time and experience, my eventual goal is to receive official recognition from the Board for Certification of Genealogists®.

• National Genealogical Society.
• Polish Genealogical Society of America.
• Sierra Vista Historical Society.
• Sierra Vista Genealogy Club.