The idea of this site has been a long-time coming.
Over the years, I have had so many times when fellow researchers and clients have looked me in the eye and asked why I thought that their children were not even a bit interested in looking at their research work. The sadness in their eyes reflected the pain in their hearts that all their work to pass on their family history might be lost, or in the worse-case scenarios, be thrown out in the trash.
My family stories, even my own love story, is something I want my own kids to know about. They have only known me for a little while. I want them to look at our family’s love stories and be excited to pass them on to their own families.
This is where I think that I can be helpful and where my background with all its twists and turns has prepared me. I am pulling my computer background, my creative side, and my love for family history and stories together so that we can draw those who follow to actively search out our Life Stories and be excited to share them to family members for generations to come.
Contact Me! I’d love to hear from you.
Just enter your email below and let’s enjoy the process together. Learning more about our family histories is easily the best reality show out there!
My Story
Beginning It’s a Life Story is something that I have felt drawn to for many years, but have just not taken the time to pull it all together until now. I’ve come to a point in my career that I have had to take stock of what I have done and where I want to go in the future.
The twists and turns in my own life have led me to this place, which I love, but the difference this time was that my next chapter hasn’t just been plopped down in front of me. You see, I have pretty much always had my own business since my 2nd child was born, some twenty-two years ago. At the time, it was a no-brainer what I would do to supplement my income while raising our children. It was very easy to transition my full-time position at the time into a business that I ran out of my home and I have never looked back. My path has changed over time from desktop publishing to Creative Memories consultant to bookkeeper/treasurer for my parents’ company to family history researcher to genealogist for The Society of Indiana Pioneers and lineage society research specialist.
Why should anyone be interested in what I have to say?
That is always the question and something that I think everyone struggles with. I am a lover of history, passionate about family history in particular, and combining all the work that I have done in the field as well as my computer background, I find myself at a point where I feel like I have a lot to offer those kindred souls that find their way to my site.
Long story short…
I’ve done a lot of family history research since I started some twelve years ago. I started looking into my family history when my son was in 4th grade—some fourteen years ago. My mother passed away just about a year prior so when my son got his family tree assignment, I traveled back to my parent’s home and pulled those precious records out. I never turned back. With four children, I have had years that I didn’t work on any family research and years when I would stay up late at night to do my research while my children were sleeping. Around 2005, I began my own research business for clients wanting to join National Society of Colonial Dames. Soon I found out that I was very good at locating seemingly non-existent ancestors for clients.
Combining my personal research, research for lineage society clients and my work as the genealogist for The Society of Indiana Pioneers since 2006, I have become very adept at locating documentation for family lines. I would be very happy to assist in your journey.
Where did the name, It’s a Life Story, come from?
Oh, that’s easy! I love to think that each of us is made up of love stories – hundreds if not thousands of them! Our parents were once newly-weds, just starting out, very much in love and looking forward to the future together as one.
My son’s 4th-grade family tree project changed my life forever. Pretty dramatic statement but it’s true. You see, my mother had passed away a year before this family tree project was assigned. When I started to look around the bits and pieces that she had put together over the years, it gave me a great deal of comfort.
It’s hard to put into words how much it meant to me to find those hand-drawn family trees with her handwriting. Somehow I could sense that many had come before me and many would come long after I am gone; it gave me a feeling of a strong foundation.
I want you to feel like you can hand down that sense of foundation and show your creative side as well. This is one project that you don’t want to put off so let’s break this down into small steps and get started!
I’m on Facebook, and am available via email at michele@itsalifestory (dot) com.