Hi, I’m Dan!

I’m Dan W. Olds — a physicist by training, a computer scientist by practice, a former college professor and administrator, and a lifelong hobbyist in genealogy and family history. This site serves as both my repository for my research findings and as a resource for my Grandkids — and great-grandkids! I hope you find it useful.

Why I Do Genealogy

My obsession with genealogy began with the stories told to me by both of my grandmothers, whom I knew well. In some cases, they had known their own grandparents and the families of my grandfathers as well, people who seemed so remote from me. At first I rather narrowly pursued just my ancestors and little more than just birth, marriage, death and burial data. Documenting what they told me seemed unnecessary although both my grandmothers were faithful visitors to family graves where I could transcribe tombstones. Slowly that focus expanded into what is now a large and time-consuming hobby.

The first record I now have of my long-time interest in family history is a piece of scrap wallpaper on which I had attempted to copy the Peter Bryant Family Tree hanging at great-aunt Myra (Olds) Dahl’s house in Wyanet, Illinois. I was never able to make it all fit on any piece of paper I had, but this fragment is a piece of scrap wallpaper my mother had. That paper is dated 1947. The subsequent years have seen my efforts progress frequently from one format to another. This website is just the latest in that evolution.

Lately, I’ve become interested in the potential of DNA to support family history research. I occasionally lecture on this subject.

My Experience with Genealogy Research

Genealogical methods and sources have changed significantly in my 75+ years of research. When I first started, family history research was all about libraries, public records, personal memories, family Bibles, and tombstones! It entailed lots of travel and detailed record keeping.

Now, with online resources, researching more recent generations has become a little easier — if you can trust all of these online databases. I’m a little skeptical on some of the data, so I encourage everyone in this field to be sure of your sources. Document where you can. Find the best sources.

Internet resources have made some other things much easier as well. For example, using the Internet, I do not plan to print a book this time. Instead, using an option which removes most information on living people, I plan to post reports on my website. This has become a very convenient way to share genealogy and make new contacts. As an electronic document, this presentation changes much more rapidly than a traditional publication would. It can be presented in a variety of formats, styles, and contents. If you have an interest in this information, I would be glad to prepare a report on your particular segment and send it to you. No doubt this would be a good way for you to see how you could help me further.

One thing that has not changed is that I will still need to rely on helpful family members to locate and share much of the information I would like to use. I hope this presentation will help me establish contact with many members of the various branches of the family who are willing to help fill the gaps or to put me in touch with other interested people. I find that family memories, copies of newspaper clippings such as wedding reports or obituaries, copies of funeral cards and graduation announcements, family letters, older genealogical notes and many other such things are very useful in documenting what I am writing. In addition to all the dates and places for birth, marriage(s), death and burial, I hope to get some biographical data such as education, job or career information, service, interests, etc.

No such reports can ever be complete or completely correct. Many records remain to be searched and many errors need to be discovered and corrected. Nevertheless, this incomplete record is presented now so that what has been gathered will not be lost but provide a base for additional work by interested family members. It is my hope that each one who reads this material will send me any corrections or additions he or she may be able to make. These things will help me improve not only the data but the documentation as well.

What others have shared with me, I am glad to share with you in the hope that through continued exchange we will improve the scope, accuracy and documentation of our knowledge of these families.