✨Family Tree Clean-Up & Organization
✔ 10 hours of expert cleanup
✔ Accurate, organized, usable tree
🎉New Year Special pricing
Start with a clean foundation to grow & build your family history.
📞Contact Marcy today or visit our website to learn more!
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01/28/2026
Local History! St. Charles History Museum
01/28/2026
Your family’s story deserves more than charts & records.
It deserves a book. 📖
Our Family History Legacy Book transforms research into a beautifully organized heirloom—complete with history, photos, and context.
🎉 26% New Year 2026 discount
Payment plans available.
This is legacy, preserved.
📞Contact Marcy today or to learn more visit our website!
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01/28/2026
Hit a genealogy brick wall? 🧱
It’s time for The Deep Dive.
✔ 10 hours of in-depth research
✔ Hard-to-find records
✔ New Year 2026 special pricing 🎉
💲 Now $399
Some mysteries just need more time—and expertise.
📞 Contact Marcy Today!
To Learn More Visit Our Website
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01/27/2026
Ready to go deeper into your family’s past?
The Heritage Project is built for multi-generation research.
✔ 20 hours of dedicated work
✔ Ongoing updates
✔ Tree management included
🎉 10% New Year discount
This is how family stories are woven together.
📞Contact Marcy Today or visit our website to learn more!
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01/26/2026
New to genealogy or have one burning question?
✨The Starter Story is perfect for beginners.
✔ 5 hours of focused research
✔ Records + summary report
✔ Tree updates included
💵 $225
Small steps can uncover BIG stories.
Explore our services page to learn more!
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01/26/2026
Not sure where to start with your family history?
That’s exactly what our Initial Project Assessment is for.
✔ Review your specific goals and existing research
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💵 $100 (credited toward a package!)
Clarity first. Confidence next.
📞 Contact Marcy Today!
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01/26/2026
✨ New Year 2026 Special! ✨
Limited Time Only – Ends January 31 ⏳
Uncover your family’s story with Budget Genealogy, LLC.
📞 Contact Marcy today!
01/24/2026
Where’s Marcy? 👀📸
See if you can spot me in these photos! Thank you Georgina J Buchanan.
A decade ago—January 2016—at a family reunion in Central Florida (Buca di Beppo 🍝), I experienced my very first genetic family reunion, and it was truly spectacular.
I met cousins who share DNA with me through my mother’s side—some of us still unsure exactly how we connect by line or ancestor, yet forming meaningful relationships and lasting friendships all the same. 💞
Hard to believe this was also the last time I saw my known blood relatives on my maternal side. Wow… how quickly 10 years have flown by.
I haven’t had another experience quite like this since, but I always hope I will again someday. Maybe even closer to home… 👀
Any family reunions happening here in Illinois?
01/24/2026
The St. Charles History Museum is proud to announce that the Joseph P. Bartlett Farm, in nearby Campton Township, has been officially placed on National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom!!! We also want to remind folks to be respectful, as this is a private residence.
This milestone presents the Joseph P. Bartlett Farm as the first verified safehouse on the Underground Railroad in Kane County. Its acceptance has also laid the groundwork for future sites to be nominated in St. Charles, and across the region. Stay tuned as we spearhead a larger effort to nominate more of these sites for America 250!
Joseph P. Bartlett (no relation to Bartlett, IL) was a schoolteacher and farmer, originally from New Hampshire. He held numerous local offices and is even responsible for naming the Township "Campton," in 1850. It was around this time, when the Bartlett family became active as agents on the Underground Railroad. It is believed they helped dozens of Freedom Seekers along their journeys. In fact, the Bartlett Farm was discovered to be one of the "missing links" in the dramatic escape of two Freedom Seekers, named "Eliza" and Celia Grayson. Their story coming soon....
Before we finish this post, we want to generously thank the property owners for being such enthusiastic and wonderful people! Its not everyday someone sends a letter saying, "we think your home was a safehouse on the UGRR." So thank you once again for allowing us to discover this history, together!
P.S. To see the only other Network to Freedom Site in Kane County, check out Newsome Park, in Elgin.
01/24/2026
One year ago today, I found a quiet treasure. 📖✨
One year ago, while working with a client, I came across a small book of poetry 📃 written by Dolores Tylka (née Kosek) for her husband, Wendell, on their 4th wedding 💍 anniversary in 1965.
I just learned Dolores passed away this past Sunday, making this discovery feel especially poignant. Her words remain—a beautiful reminder of love that endures. 🤍
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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.
