Welcome!

Hello! I'm Sandi and this is where I post about my family history research. I decided to share my research publicly in the hope that it will help others with their own research, and will connect me to people with similar interests or even the same ancestors as myself. I usually try to write one post each month, which works pretty well with my busy schedule, but I am making an effort to increase my post volume.

I've been doing this type of research since I was twelve years old (I am 25 now!) but my dedication to it grew significantly when I moved away from home to go to college. I run my own tree on Ancestry.com (over 4000 individuals!) as well as trees for several friends. I am very interested in genetic genealogy and have participated thus far in AncestryDNA and 23andMe DNA tests.

I am an archaeologist, currently pursuing my Master's degree. I work primarily in the Middle Atlantic region and in the historical period (from the arrival of Europeans onward). Research is a critical skill in archaeology, and I have found that my experience in genealogy prepared me well for documentary research. In turn, learning more about research for archaeology has expanded my genealogical research skills. 

My grandparents moved several years ago and had to downsize. Most of the family papers and photos ended up at my parents house, much to my gleeful surprise. Since then I have embarked on an ambitious project to scan and catalog all the photos, to scan and transcribe all the documents, and to photograph all the heirlooms so that all may be preserved in perpetuity and be made public and accessible to others via the internet. These things make regular appearances here on the blog. It is an ongoing project, though, and I doubt I will ever be truly finished with it.

I am particularly interested in the roughly 100 years that my Overington ancestors (and related families) lived in Frankford, Philadelphia. This is part of my family tree that I have extensive documentation of. I took a class in Geographic Information Systems as a graduate student and for my final project I created a digital model of the area my ancestors lived in using historical maps for 1910, 1920, and 1929 - these years specifically so I could tie in census data and create a visual, geographical model of demographics by household. This, too, is an ongoing project as I work to expand the study area to the entirety of Frankford, to process even more census data, and to add additional census years to the study. This doesn't make many appearances on the blog, but I hope to one day write a good long post (or several) about my findings.

If you're still here, I'd like to add that I am always happy to help out others when I can. I have already met many residents of Frankford through this blog, and it is a joy to illuminate some small part of their neighborhood's history with the information I have about the Overingtons. I have also met several distant cousins through this blog and through my Flickr and Ancestry accounts, and if you think we might be related I would be delighted to hear from you. 

Additionally, if you think my research methods are flawed or I have any incorrect data, I welcome critique and suggestions so long as they are presented respectfully.