Over 50 years ago, I began helping people solve the puzzle of who filled the branches of their family tree. That was before genealogy information was posted online. Research required that I review newspapers, church, school, and government records. I am Terry Vaughn Skaug, experienced in researching family trees. As interest in genealogy grows, so does the number of research websites. They are a quick way to start researching family history yet provide limited and often conflicting or incorrect information.

Why pay for research?

Identifying the correct individual in a crowd is difficult. The 2020 U.S. Census counted more than 3 million people named Smith and over a million each with the surnames Brown, Davis, Garcia, Hernandez, Johnson, Jones, Martinez, Miller, and Williams.

Many vital records, birth, marriage, and divorce certificates are not available online. Those that are on websites often have errors, due to typos, misspellings, nicknames, etc. This complicates identifying the correct person for a family tree.

I obtain authentic documentation by

• Subscribing to dozens of online databases.
• Interviewing people to collect more clues.
• Collaborating with other professional genealogists.
• Hiking cemeteries hunting grave markers, collecting data, and photographs.
• Exploring files from government, schools, newspapers, and historical societies.

Consultations are free. Contact me to discuss your family history project. For over 50 years, I have helped others discover who fills the branches of their family tree.