Michael’s Lectures:
His approach is relaxed, generally lighthearted, yet informative. No one wants to sit and listen to a speaker read their lecture from a handout or give a monotone recitation of what is already on the projection screen. He also avoids the use of constant bullets in PowerPoint, probably because a bullet is how at least two of his ancestors met their demise (another one probably died due to having a sword pulled through his hands, but that’s a whole lecture in and of itself).
 
Experience:
He has researched his own family for over twenty years and has actively researched his children’s ancestry as well. The bulk of this ancestry is centered in the American Midwest and points east. Many of his children’s ancestors were post-1850 European immigrants from a variety of countries, including: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland. There are also lines from MO, IN, KY, OH, VA and MD. By ancestry, he is one-half Ostfriesen. He has spent numerous hours in local courthouses, archives and libraries working on these families.

He has written on genealogical research and methods since 1987, for a wide variety of genealogical publications, including Ancestry, Genealogical Computing, the Genealogical Helper, Heritage Quest, and others. He has been actively involved in program planning and promotion of several of the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ annual conferences.

He is a native of West-Central Illinois and was raised on a grain and cattle farm in Hancock Co. where many of his ancestors began settling in the 1850s. He attended high school in the same building as his parents and went to junior high school in the building where his grandmother went to high school.

He got started in genealogy when his younger brother had to bring a 4-generation family tree to school. Michael wanted to know more  and it’s been “uphill” from there.