I am relatively new to Fitchburg (Wildwood subdivision) historically speaking, having come here in 1991 to work for Promega Corporation. As a Senior Research Scientist I developed forensic DNA fingerprinting kits and automated methods for processing DNA from crime scenes. My family consists of my wife Barb, four children with their spouses and eleven grandchildren all living within a 35-minute drive.

I have been interested in genealogy since my grandmother showed me an old bible with her ancestors listed in the front pages. Using my analytic skills I have been able to authenticate thousands of ancestors and extended relatives dating back over a thousand years. As part of this research I studied the history of where they lived to gain a better perspective of their lives. Based on my genealogical knowledge I was asked by Carole Kinney, a friend and FHS board member to give a lecture on the basics of genealogy in 2014. I joined the Fitchburg Historical Society in 2015 and have been the President from 2016 to 2019. I am also the FHS Webmaster and developed our new FHS digital Database.

Recently I found one more connection with Fitchburg. Carole and her husband Bill asked me to research Bill’s ancestor Andrew Kinney who came here in 1844 from Milford, CT; the same place where Barb and I had ancestors dating back to the 1640s. It turns out Bill and Barb are 7^thcousins. It is only fitting that Carole and Barb work together on organizing our historical collection.