In March 2017 I presented a lecture on “20 Tools I Used to Break Down a Brick Wall I Never Knew I Had.”    Following extensive research on my paternal grandmother’s family, I discovered in September 2015 that my father was adopted!   Thus began a whole new search for my “new” family.   I have been amazed by the wide variety of tools, both online and on site, that enabled me to learn much more about my dad’s birth mother’s family.  Over the past months I have continued the search and have expanded the list of “tools” that have added to the story.

September 2018 – Download the latest updated copy of the handout.