Budget Genealogy offers professional genealogical services at an affordable cost
10/20/2025
🧬 Uncover Your Family History and Trace Your Roots
Ever wondered where your story began?
At Budget Genealogy, we make it simple (and affordable!) to explore your heritage — from your first discoveries to creating a complete family heritage book.
📜 Whether you’re building your first family tree or diving deep into generations past, we help you connect with your ancestors and preserve your legacy for years to come.
✨ Explore our genealogy packages today and find the perfect fit for your journey. Your story starts here — let’s trace your roots together.
10/17/2025
Had a Follow-up visit. Will be slowly returning back to business 😌
10/09/2025
NEW TODAY! Ancestry's Exciting Ethnicity Estimate Update & DNA Kit Giveaway! Genealogy TV's 500th Episode Celebration. This is Ancestry’s biggest update to date. https://youtu.be/UDlSkkCTs3w
In this milestone 500th episode of Genealogy TV, I welcome corporate genealogist Crista Cowan from Ancestry to discuss the latest updates to Ancestry's ethnicity estimates.
We discuss the annual fall update process, which now includes more precise data and numerous new regions. Also, Crista elaborates on the distinction between 'origins' and 'journeys' in the context of AncestryDNA and how these help in tracing family history.
Lastly, we talked off of the DNA subject about the image matching capabilities that is new on Ancestry called “Face Match.”
There is not a handout with this episode, but stay tuned, one is coming.
10/09/2025
Several years ago, this photograph stopped me in my tracks at a photo show. It felt like she was calling to me: “Find my story. Name me.”
So, I did what any good photo detective would do. I bought the image.
This powerful portrait appears in my book The Last Muster: Faces of the Revolution. It was taken by Civil War photographer George N. Barnard sometime in the late 1860s. He titled it “Old Maumer, aged 107 years, Charleston, S.C.”
The word “Maumer” was used to describe an elderly African American woman who had likely cared for children, perhaps her own or others’.
If her age was accurate, she was born around 1766, which means she lived through both the American Revolution and the Civil War.
Was she Sue Alston? Betty Frazer? Maria Jefferson? Dianah Vanderhorst? The 1870 census lists four women in Charleston County who might fit her story. Until another identified image of her is found, we cannot say for sure.
What we do know is that Barnard’s lens captured her strength and dignity, and that more than a century later, she still commands us to look closer and remember.
📷 George N. Barnard, “Old Maumer, aged 107 years, Charleston, S.C.” c. 1870s. Collection of Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective.
10/04/2025
Today's Casework
🔎 Today, I continued my deep dive into the 1946 census records from Paris, France, researching Armenian refugees and the many immigrant families who rebuilt Paris after WWII. ⏳️
This particular collection contains 465 images, each one showing two pages with around 100 names per page. That’s roughly 36,500 names to study line by line, household by household — a massive but rewarding journey into history.
Along the way, I’ve recorded not just French households (Pierre, Vidal, Guenard, Martin, Durant, Vilain, Marin, Charles, Baptiste, Merlot, Journal, Lambert, Baron, Egret, David, Weiss) but also immigrants from across the globe:
🇪🇸 Torres, Lopez (Spain)
🇮🇹 Rossi (Italy)
🇨🇭 Vorowsky (Switzerland)
🇧🇪 Williams/Williame (Belgium)
🇵🇱 Flaster (Poland)
🇩🇪 Birnkenhauer (Germany)
🇷🇺 Blumberg (Russia)
🇹🇷 Cohen (Turkey)
🇨🇳 Yu (China)
🇺🇸 Anderson (United States)
It’s humbling to think of the sheer scale of stories preserved here.
💻 The Archives de Paris website holds over 21 million digitized records available to the public — an incredible, often overlooked resource for genealogists. Beyond the big commercial sites, it’s a treasure trove of census, civil, and military records that can unlock details you won’t find anywhere else.
Every name, every line, is a piece of someone’s history. And together, they tell the story of a city rebuilding and welcoming people from around the world. 🌍
Happy hunting! 🌳🕵♀️
Record Source: Archives de Paris
10/03/2025
Big thanks to Robert for trusting me with his family story and leaving this glowing 5-star review! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love helping families connect with their history.
Have we helped you on your genealogy journey? Share your experience—we’d love to hear from you!
10/02/2025
✨ Big news to share: Budget Genealogy is now an LLC!
For the past 20 years, I’ve poured my heart into helping families connect with their history and preserve their stories. This new chapter, as Budget Genealogy, LLC, is a milestone that honors where we’ve been and looks forward to where we’re going.
I’m deeply grateful for every client, friend, and supporter who has trusted me with their family’s story.
Your encouragement has made this possible — and I’m so excited for what’s ahead! 💙
10/01/2025
Our office will be closed on Thursday, October 2, in observance of Yom Kippur. We will reopen on Friday, October 3.
Wishing a meaningful fast to all who observe. May this Day of Atonement be a time of peace and reflection for you and your family.
09/29/2025
✨ Family Tree Funnies by Budget Genealogy ✨
Images Credit: Pixabay succo and Peggy_Marco
Modified By: Budget Genealogy
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My grandmother Lydia passed away in 2005 in her Bronx apt. While my family and I were sorting through her belongings, I realized how much I didn’t know about her life and family. I remember sitting beside her going through old family albums. She shared stories in her native tongue, Spanish, as we looked at each picture. So sadly, because I am not fluent in the language I felt what she had shared with me was utterly lost.
Or was it?
Looking back I think of her imparting a special blessing to me, one that she knew I would one day delve into, welcome and walk in a path dedicated to preserving our family history. Her Bible ...was the starting point. Of all my grandmother’s belongings that I could choose to bring back with me, what drew me most was her worn, black leather-bound bible and another religious book. Hidden inside was a funeral card with a name I had never heard of, William Horacio Vargas. William I learned was her father, my great grandfather. The first clue.
Months later... after I had forgotten about the other religious book, on a particular day I felt drawn to it, pulled. When I opened it up, numbers were written across on the first page. “Why did she write these numbers down?” I thought to myself.
With both of my grandparents gone and no known family history, I was surprised to learn the mystery numbers were their social security IDs which then led to their applications. The applications gave their full names, birth-dates and birth places, both parents names and also where they were from and even more vital information. The second clue.
This was key to the beginning of my genealogy quest.
It all started with my own family, building our tree, one branch at a time. Every clue led to new discoveries and family lines. Connections with lost family. Oral stories considered myth or legend proven reality! A rich and colorful family history and a few ancestors remaining hidden waiting to be discovered. There’s an Indian princesses and the ancestors who met Columbus on the shore. Young Spanish maidens and a bishop knighted by the Queen of Spain. French settlers in New Orleans. The Jews who fled Spain in 1492. The President of Venezuela and his family who fled to Puerto Rico. The African slaves and highly suspect white slaves too. There are stories of pirates, story-tellers and writers, witch doctors, the wealthy and prominent settlers falling in love with the unaccepted undesirable poor, family dramas and political wars. And it doesn’t end.
During my years researching my own family history, I joined a local genealogy group. Soon after, I was asked to lead the group and it was then that I met my genealogy partner, Tom Kanagie. Together we co-founded Genealogy Detectives. Through Genealogy Detectives is where I started Budget Genealogy and had my first client. Since then I have completed over 25 genealogy cases and managed several of my clients’ DNA accounts; connecting them to their genetic family.
Fast forward 14 years later... I am ready to take this journey to the next level. Trusting God every step of the way moving forward. I invite you to partner with me as our ancestors resurface from the dusty old pages, stored in a web covered chest, forgotten in musty basements and attics... waiting silently to be found... for their stories to be told and their lines to flow once again in us, through us, down into the ages yet to come.
