I'm a native of Merced County. I became addicted to genealogy when my mother died in 1972. As most family's do after the death of a loved one, we started discussing who Mom and Dad's grandparents were. I was amazed to how little Dad knew. So, it was then I decided I would find out.

I researched from 1972-1998 by mail, writing letters, joining different genealogy groups in hopes of finding these unknown people. In 1998 my Dad passed away, he had lived with us for the last 5 years of his life. I found I had so much extra time on my hands after his passing, so we hooked up to the Internet. Whoa--what a change. I subscribed to different mailing groups. Then in 1999 the list-mom from the CADI mailing list asked if I could go to the recorder’s office and transcribe a couple of death certificates, then it was a few obits, and before I knew it I was receiving requests from all over. I've learned so much about the History of Merced County from helping others research their Merced families.

Then Find-A-Grave came along. A friend created a memorial for my grandfather, I was checking it, saw a mistake. so I dropped her an email asking her to please correct the error, well it turned out I ended up emailing her three times. Finally she said "why don't you join Find-A-Grave," and you can do the correcting. Well, she was so nice, I decided I would join. Before I knew it, one family member led to another, and another. Then I decided to go through the obituaries that I've saved thru-out the years and offer them to other FAG volunteers. I'm finding this is very addictive.

I'm a native of Merced County. I became addicted to genealogy when my mother died in 1972. As most family's do after the death of a loved one, we started discussing who Mom and Dad's grandparents were. I was amazed to how little Dad knew. So, it was then I decided I would find out.

I researched from 1972-1998 by mail, writing letters, joining different genealogy groups in hopes of finding these unknown people. In 1998 my Dad passed away, he had lived with us for the last 5 years of his life. I found I had so much extra time on my hands after his passing, so we hooked up to the Internet. Whoa--what a change. I subscribed to different mailing groups. Then in 1999 the list-mom from the CADI mailing list asked if I could go to the recorder’s office and transcribe a couple of death certificates, then it was a few obits, and before I knew it I was receiving requests from all over. I've learned so much about the History of Merced County from helping others research their Merced families.

Then Find-A-Grave came along. A friend created a memorial for my grandfather, I was checking it, saw a mistake. so I dropped her an email asking her to please correct the error, well it turned out I ended up emailing her three times. Finally she said "why don't you join Find-A-Grave," and you can do the correcting. Well, she was so nice, I decided I would join. Before I knew it, one family member led to another, and another. Then I decided to go through the obituaries that I've saved thru-out the years and offer them to other FAG volunteers. I'm finding this is very addictive.