Shortly after they retired in the summer of 2010, a notice about a genealogical society which met at their local library attracted their attention. At one of the first meetings they attended after becoming members of this group, a representative from the Mid-Atlantic Regional National Archives spoke about immigration and naturalization records. His presentation was an eye opener that sparked keen interest in what they might possibly learn beyond the names and dates of ancestors from both sides of their family.     

Several months later they attended a genealogy fair in Delaware County. An unanticipated benefit was a complimentary membership in the sponsoring genealogical society for the second half of that calendar year. They began attending those meetings as well where they learned about local and international resources that have been particularly helpful in researching Jack's family. They have been active members of this second genealogical society since the fall of 2011.

Ann is the more active researcher. However, Jack provides invaluable support by monitoring train schedules, sharing the driving, feeding parking meters, moving the car from parking spots with about-to-expire-limits, reading microfilms, holding places in line, making coffee runs, securing the laptop and other research materials while Ann investigates resources at archives, libraries, and historical societies, and serving as all around sounding board and cheering section.    

They have learned that both sets of Jack's grandparents, who were all deceased before he was born, immigrated approximately fifteen years apart around the beginning of the twentieth century. His maternal grandparents arrived first from the Austro-Hungarian Empire followed by his paternal grandparents from the Russian Empire. They have developed admiration for his paternal grandmother who made the rail and sea voyage with four children under the age of ten to meet her husband who had arrived in the U.S. approximately fifteen months earlier.  

They have also learned that some details related by family members that they thought were established facts when they started their research, were inaccurate, a familiar story to most researchers. Ann's paternal 2x great grandfather was a Lancaster County master blacksmith and inn keeper, not a farmer. Jack's paternal grandfather was a carpenter, not a tailor. His paternal grandmother's given name was Bessie, not Rachel.  

Reversal of fortune surely had an impact on some ancestors that has reverberated through succeeding generations. Although their immigration from Europe was separated by almost two centuries, religious discrimination/persecution prompted some ancestors from both sides of their family to settle in Pennsylvania. Ann's maternal 4x great grandfather lost his wife to typhus fever and shortly thereafter his Chester County clover mill and other property in a land swindle. He and ten of their seventeen surviving children relocated to Juniata and Perry Counties. Her paternal great grandmother died less than a week after her only child's first birthday.

In addition to researching their own family histories, they have volunteered to take on "acts of genealogical kindness" - requests from others who are unable to come to the Philadelphia area to perform their own research. Finding and fitting together the pieces is rewarding no matter whose family is the subject of the puzzle. They remain in periodic contact with several of their "kindness requestors".

While they have each had long standing interests in history, researching their ancestors has fostered a curiosity for a deeper and more personal understanding of the periods of time in which their ancestors lived. They are pleased that members of the younger generation from both of their families have expressed interest in learning more about the ancestors from whom they descend and sharing this knowledge with their own children.