An active Family Genealogist.

About me -- Profile photo is probably the last official photo in naval service, dated about 1996.

A Full-Time Retired Male, living in a Central New York State, USA Community -- "The Mohawk Valley."

Former Computing Development Engineer and Production Technologist in private industry, and retired from New York State as a computer analyst and contributing member of the Office of General Services Network Administration team. Also, a retired United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer (W-4) with 35+ years in naval service, most sea duty aboard conventional and nuclear submarines as a Submarine Electronics Specialist (USS Grouper SS/SSK/AGSS-214, USS George Bancroft SSBN-643 Blue Crew, and USS Nautilus SSN-571)... this coupled with several shorter sea-service tours of duty aboard USS Forrestal (CVA-59), and several Ship Intermediate Repair Tenders (USS L.Y. Spear AS-36, USS Vulcan AR-5, and USS Sierra AD-18). Prior naval service also includes several multiple-year assignments: Executive Officer, USNAVTELCOMSTA Iceland Detachment; Commanding Officer, Mobile Fleet Boat Pool 4, Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, VA (Port Services); and, Officer-In-Charge (OIC), Naval Construction Battalion 13 ("The Black Cats") Detachment 602 - "The Seabees".

No more time for gainful employment.

Please check out my BLOG site; "Ancient Geek Fumes" at the linked website cited in this bio heading. Fellow Ancestry.com subscribers may also wish to view my public family tree "DJ Paul Family Tree" -- a tree that presently holds over 19,000 related profiles and over 8,000 photos. Please use anything entered into my family tree without additional permission.

There is no intentional attempt here to lecture other very fine and active Find A Grave (F.A.G.) contributors on F.A.G. management policy or personal opinion on memorials created by other active F.A.G. contributors. Cited here is a respectful thanks and experienced-based personal genealogical observation that some experienced gravers may want to read and consider. My main personal F.A.G. contribution is to shoot and upload monument photos, to enhance existing memorial profiles with a focus on US military veterans, to install family links, and to write, update, and upload improved memorial biographical data wherever possible. Creating weak new F.A.G. memorial profiles that largely seem readily available from other online resources at least here in the Northeastern USA is not generally helpful in family genealogist research. Statements by some gravers that F.A.G. is not a genealogy website are flatly untrue and clearly wrong, an opinion by some longtime gravers that grossly understates the historical value of well-prepared memorial profiles. Reasonable family genealogists recognize and understand F.A.G. memorial profiles are not primary or secondary genealogical reference sources, but they can be valued source confirmation when better created. For example, well-prepared F.A.G. memorial profiles are certainly as good or better than many early DAR member profiles. What is true about a marginal F.A.G. memorial profile creation is -- "GIGO" -- Garbage-In-Garbage-Out -- profiles that state untrue, unknown, or wishful thinking are not genealogically helpful. In this Internet Age, bad memorial profiles cause many family trees to be messed up with misinformation. Time for long-time gravers to at least recognize that for many years now, F.A.G. is a fully-owned subsidiary of the leading genealogy service Ancestry.com, and F.A.G. memorial profiles created are increasingly more closely linked to family trees at Ancestry.com. It is time to accept that the mission has changed -- please consider continuing your caring work and future contributions under the reality of Ancestry.com ownership and at least partial management control.

A rigorous attempt is made to enhance existing F.A.G. memorial profiles made by others with family links and related personal biographical information. Otherwise put, it seems more valuable to create quality rather than quantity in F.A.G. profiles. Sincere gratitude is extended to those significant contributors who readily transfer the management of memorial profiles of related persons that may have been added without holding good background data on the deceased individuals. A warm thank you to these many fine F.A.G. contributors -- your efforts are strongly appreciated. Soldiers and sailors, particularly Revolutionary War and American Civil War Veterans, are another area of strong personal interest and a significant attempt made here to better document their gallant service to the USA.

I've recently found one of our 3rd Great Grandparent couples, a couple personally researched for a decade or more, and finally found via a strongly welcome Ancestry.com "hint." The Ancestry hint is provided by what seems to be updated and better-defined hint criteria in Ancestry.com's growing database. The value of an improved F.A.G.-to-Ancestry.com database linkage seems to be paying substantial dividends to genealogical research -- and this is very much appreciated.

No images and/or written materials uploaded by me are copyrighted... please copy and add any helpful information found to your not-for-profit family trees. Visitors are welcome and may freely use any of my growing public F.A.G. contributions or my several Ancestry.com family tree information and photos under the educational fair use doctrine -- use any of my unaltered images without additional permission or contact. My fundamental intention in making F.A.G. contributions and building Ancestry.com public family tree information is to educate my current and unknowable future descendants, closer family, including our very distant cousins. Many thanks!

Best Regards,
DJ Paul of Herkimer County, NY.
Last reviewed and updated 26 Sep 2023.

An active Family Genealogist.

About me -- Profile photo is probably the last official photo in naval service, dated about 1996.

A Full-Time Retired Male, living in a Central New York State, USA Community -- "The Mohawk Valley."

Former Computing Development Engineer and Production Technologist in private industry, and retired from New York State as a computer analyst and contributing member of the Office of General Services Network Administration team. Also, a retired United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer (W-4) with 35+ years in naval service, most sea duty aboard conventional and nuclear submarines as a Submarine Electronics Specialist (USS Grouper SS/SSK/AGSS-214, USS George Bancroft SSBN-643 Blue Crew, and USS Nautilus SSN-571)... this coupled with several shorter sea-service tours of duty aboard USS Forrestal (CVA-59), and several Ship Intermediate Repair Tenders (USS L.Y. Spear AS-36, USS Vulcan AR-5, and USS Sierra AD-18). Prior naval service also includes several multiple-year assignments: Executive Officer, USNAVTELCOMSTA Iceland Detachment; Commanding Officer, Mobile Fleet Boat Pool 4, Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, VA (Port Services); and, Officer-In-Charge (OIC), Naval Construction Battalion 13 ("The Black Cats") Detachment 602 - "The Seabees".

No more time for gainful employment.

Please check out my BLOG site; "Ancient Geek Fumes" at the linked website cited in this bio heading. Fellow Ancestry.com subscribers may also wish to view my public family tree "DJ Paul Family Tree" -- a tree that presently holds over 19,000 related profiles and over 8,000 photos. Please use anything entered into my family tree without additional permission.

There is no intentional attempt here to lecture other very fine and active Find A Grave (F.A.G.) contributors on F.A.G. management policy or personal opinion on memorials created by other active F.A.G. contributors. Cited here is a respectful thanks and experienced-based personal genealogical observation that some experienced gravers may want to read and consider. My main personal F.A.G. contribution is to shoot and upload monument photos, to enhance existing memorial profiles with a focus on US military veterans, to install family links, and to write, update, and upload improved memorial biographical data wherever possible. Creating weak new F.A.G. memorial profiles that largely seem readily available from other online resources at least here in the Northeastern USA is not generally helpful in family genealogist research. Statements by some gravers that F.A.G. is not a genealogy website are flatly untrue and clearly wrong, an opinion by some longtime gravers that grossly understates the historical value of well-prepared memorial profiles. Reasonable family genealogists recognize and understand F.A.G. memorial profiles are not primary or secondary genealogical reference sources, but they can be valued source confirmation when better created. For example, well-prepared F.A.G. memorial profiles are certainly as good or better than many early DAR member profiles. What is true about a marginal F.A.G. memorial profile creation is -- "GIGO" -- Garbage-In-Garbage-Out -- profiles that state untrue, unknown, or wishful thinking are not genealogically helpful. In this Internet Age, bad memorial profiles cause many family trees to be messed up with misinformation. Time for long-time gravers to at least recognize that for many years now, F.A.G. is a fully-owned subsidiary of the leading genealogy service Ancestry.com, and F.A.G. memorial profiles created are increasingly more closely linked to family trees at Ancestry.com. It is time to accept that the mission has changed -- please consider continuing your caring work and future contributions under the reality of Ancestry.com ownership and at least partial management control.

A rigorous attempt is made to enhance existing F.A.G. memorial profiles made by others with family links and related personal biographical information. Otherwise put, it seems more valuable to create quality rather than quantity in F.A.G. profiles. Sincere gratitude is extended to those significant contributors who readily transfer the management of memorial profiles of related persons that may have been added without holding good background data on the deceased individuals. A warm thank you to these many fine F.A.G. contributors -- your efforts are strongly appreciated. Soldiers and sailors, particularly Revolutionary War and American Civil War Veterans, are another area of strong personal interest and a significant attempt made here to better document their gallant service to the USA.

I've recently found one of our 3rd Great Grandparent couples, a couple personally researched for a decade or more, and finally found via a strongly welcome Ancestry.com "hint." The Ancestry hint is provided by what seems to be updated and better-defined hint criteria in Ancestry.com's growing database. The value of an improved F.A.G.-to-Ancestry.com database linkage seems to be paying substantial dividends to genealogical research -- and this is very much appreciated.

No images and/or written materials uploaded by me are copyrighted... please copy and add any helpful information found to your not-for-profit family trees. Visitors are welcome and may freely use any of my growing public F.A.G. contributions or my several Ancestry.com family tree information and photos under the educational fair use doctrine -- use any of my unaltered images without additional permission or contact. My fundamental intention in making F.A.G. contributions and building Ancestry.com public family tree information is to educate my current and unknowable future descendants, closer family, including our very distant cousins. Many thanks!

Best Regards,
DJ Paul of Herkimer County, NY.
Last reviewed and updated 26 Sep 2023.