For the past year I had the privilege of being the direct supervisor of several genealogy college students working together on a very special project for the Department of Defense Prisoner of War and Missing In Action Accounting Agency, DPAA.

We were responsible for doing the family history research on the unaccounted for fallen soldiers from WWII with 65 cases assigned to us from that war and one case from Vietnam for the Navy.  We had a wonderful and successful experience and helped bring closure to families of loved ones lost in the wars.

Please take a moment and watch the video or read further about the program at www.dpaa.mil for some inspiring insights on our work.

This was a very touching story regarding the burial of a veteran with no known family other than his neighbors. Such is life sometimes but we are all brothers in sisters in reality.

Link to News Story in the Washington Post 

My great grandfather George W Tindall was born at the beginning of the Civil War and though he didn't see any military action in his lifetime he did serve as Sheriff of Okanogan County, WA for several years during the turn of the century and helped keep the peace prior to WWI.  I have other ancestors who served during the Civil War on both sides of the conflict.

My 2nd Great Grandfather was Charles Marion Tindall who was an Oregon Trail Pioneer and had to defend his family from Indians along the way and after they settled in their pioneer home in Scio, Lynn, Oregon.  His father-in-law was Col. Daniel W Moore who served with Henry Dodge during the Black Hawk War and also served as Commandant of Ft. Jackson in Mineral Point, Iowa.

One of my 3rd Great Grandfather's was William Beals, Sr. and he enlisted as a Marine in NY in 1807 and was a prisoner of war during the War of 1812 and nearly starved to death in Canada while in captivity.

My 4th Great Grandfather was Thomas Tindall and was a Revolutionary War Patriot and has a headstone marker in the Lusk Cemetery of Edwardsville, IL provided by the Sons of the American Revolution for his service.

I am grateful for their service and for the liberties and freedoms we enjoy today.  I am also mindful that if they had not survived my family and I would not be here or have the country we love so much.  

To my forefathers and to the veterans of the United States of America, I salute you and thank you.  Happy Veterans Day! 

What a wonderful Father's Day this year.  We relocated to Salt Lake City and had four of our children and four of our grandchildren with us at our new home.

It was so nice to be with family and the hugs and warm wishes were very loving.

To make it even nicer the San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Championship!  Now that was fantastic!

I just returned from a research trip to Jamaica.  What a trip!  Spring Break was in full swing but I was enjoying collecting records on the island for my clients.  The drive from Kingston to Ocho Rios was an adventure to say the least.  Narrow twisting canyon roads with semis who were too big for the road and taxi drivers taking risks they shouldn't be, but it's all good mon!  Fern Gully was beautiful!

We (my research assistant on the trip, my wife Kay) enjoyed an excursion on our last day to Dunn's River Falls and had some fun with the other thousands of people climbing over the rocks ascending the falls.  It reminded me of the words, "I lift you and you lift me and we both will ascend together".  

May our paths in life be beautiful, even if dangerous, and may paradise find us all as we lift each other to higher heights.

Yah Mon! It's all good! 

Share your love with your family and make it a great Valentines Day!  Reach out to your ancestors also to show them you love and appreciate the sacrifices and paths they blazed so you can have the life you enjoy.  Count your blessings every day and give God thanks for His kisses of love to his children.

With Love!

This Christmas Season let us reflect upon the many people that have touched our lives in a positive way and how we have touched theirs for good.  

When we do genealogy work they help touch our hearts for good and we do the same for them.

Merry Christmas!  May all of our lives be wonderful!

Recently we ended a successful inheritance case in New York for two first cousins of a holocaust survivor.  We were very happy to be a part of the successful outcome due to our research of the family proving the legal right to their inheritance, but more than that it was a wonderful love story of survival and family strength even in the midst of some of the most horrific conditions and treatment of members of God's children.

I wish you could have been there to hear the testimony of a 90 year old survivor of the holocaust give her testimony via video conferencing from Sweden.  Like a beautiful flower in the midst of a mountain of sadness she was able to survive and tell a beautiful love story of her beloved and how they fell in love, got married in the ghetto of Piotrkow Poland a month before the "Action" and then were seperated and finally reunited in Sweden after the war was over.  She had been told he was killed and then it wasn't until six months after the war she recieved a phone call, while she was still recovering in the hospital in Sweden, from her husband to let her know he was still alive.  It took another six months before they were able to get back together.

It was a heartwarming story.

The other first cousins survived by escaping to Russia, but had to work in a work camp in Siberia in order to survive, but survive they did and their story is a beautiful tale of father and brothers working together to help each other overcome the difficulties of the war and then to reunite with the surviving members of their families after the war.  Many of their family were not so fortunate, but those that were came to America to build a better life together in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Let's salute once again our Father's! 

Recently a military father surprised his family at a baseball game by having a video broadcasted on the scoreboard showing him in uniform in the Middle East.  Then the father who had just secretly returned home came out onto the field to meet his family in person and surprise them with hugs and kisses.  From the battlefield to the Field of Dreams the hearts of the children turned to their father and embraced in a loving family group hug.  It was a wonderful scene and I hope you enjoyed the memories it brings back to your heart of your father, if not your earthly father, than your Heavenly Father.  Count your many blessings and see what God has done for you in your life this Father's Day!  God Bless Us All!

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7410032n