The year 2022 has flown by as years often do! In May I was able to spend my first Mother’s Day in England as a grandmother with my daughter and her newborn; three generations on such a special day. While there, I was able to meet up with my English house historians, which is always a treat. Thanksgiving was another highlight when my family came in from all corners of the world to spend the holiday together. The end of the year was not as joyful, as I suffered a stress fracture of my leg and was laid up for weeks before coming down with Covid. However, isolating during the illnesses has given me time to review the projects that Legacy Roots has had this past year and to determine what the focus should be in 2023.
HOUSE HISTORIES
Though this past year was rather silent on house history projects, I have been able to make headway in the editing a couple of books I have been working on, including one surrounding house histories that touch on the social history of numerous homes throughout the world with unusual stories. I hope that by the end of the year I can announce its publication.
GENEALOGY
While house history research has slowed, the greatest successes this past year have been working on projects for those who have been unable to find an ancestor in the records. A couple of the mysteries have led to uncovering an unknown adoption in the family’s history and an ancestor who was living a dual life. Other projects have taken my research across the nation, as well as to Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, and Switzerland.
2023 OUTLOOK
In 2023, in the realm of house histories, I will be working with my local historical society to implement a historic home plaque program, and hope to update you all through the year to encourage other towns to follow suit. I am also looking forward to continuing to assist families in solving ancestral mysteries for the majority of my work. Along with those projects, Legacy Roots will be introducing a new service — writing Family History Memoirs. While chatting with fellow writers at a meeting of the Biographer’s Guild of Greater New York, it was recommended that I consider offering this to my patrons. This was suggested after sharing that my clients enjoyed the documented narrative of my reports, a unique way in presenting the unraveling of their family mysteries that brings it to the level of a story wanting to be read. In the next few months, Legacy Roots’ website will be updated to a new look that includes more details on these changes.
Wishing you the very best this New Year with your research endeavors!
[Photo: The Three Greyhounds pub in central London, 2022.]
