An Unexpected Career

In 2004, I began working as a professional genealogist. That happened somewhat unexpectedly while I was attending college. People began asking if they could hire me and I created my own business not really knowing what I was doing. Before long, I found myself busy enough that I could commit to being a full-time professional genealogist!

In 2007, I joined forces with a few colleagues to help build ProGenealogists, a private genealogy firm based in Salt Lake City. In 2008, we found a place working with Ancestry on the  series “Who Do You Think You Are?” Then, in 2010, our firm was acquired by Ancestry and I continued to be apart of company until June 2022.

During my years at Ancestry, I had the privilege of conducting research for hundreds of clients in nearly every part of the globe, as well as traveling and speaking at many conferences and private events. I acted as an Ancestry spokesperson on numerous occasions for various PR and marketing campaigns (including a fun appearence on The Jimmy Kimmel Show). Most notably, though, I directed research work for many of the episodes of “Who Do You Think You Are?” through its final season. I was honored to appear as a guest genealogist in 15 of the episodes (the most of any other contributor in the U.S. series).