I’m Pam Heald: a mom (to human and dog children), a wife, and an avid lover of genealogy and Young Living products. I’m an active member of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), served as Membership Chair and am currently in my second term as the Registrar (genealogist) for my chapter.
My love for genealogy started in fifth grade when I did a family history project. My presentation was a family tree detailing my paternal grandmother’s family migration from Ireland to America. It was my first foray into how history can be personal to each individual.
Jump forward 25 years or so, and then begins my very in-depth journey into genealogy. When my grandmother passed away, we found hundreds of photos stashed away and needed a way to identify the people. Many of these photos were from 1920’s, some even older. They are a priceless treasure. Photos of her and her sister when they were 5 and 7 years old wearing hair bows as big as their heads! Sifting through these photos with my Dad unearthed semi-forgotten family stories: “she (he) married a wild indian”, ‘we’re a Mayflower family”, “we’re related to Brigham Young [LDS founder]” and many more. As I worked through the grief of losing my grandmother, researching these stories became my way to stay connected to her.
In my journey: Along with tracing lineage for friends, I have proven most of our semi-forgotten family stories to be true, have found multiple American Revolution Patriots, and traced both sides of my family back to their non-American origins in Ireland and Italy. In addition, since 2010, I have completed and passed all the DAR Genealogy Education Program classes, and have served as Registrar for my DAR chapter. I continue to learn and grow my genealogical skills by attending conferences, classes and webinars, and reading textbooks. I am a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, and New England Historical Genealogical Society. I’m committed to learning about the methodology of genealogical research and strive to continually educated myself.
I love genealogy because it is the never ending puzzle. There are always more questions than answers, more findings to unearth, more connections to make: and puzzles are my favorite games.
What keeps me going though is helping others connect with their past and helping them research and prove/disprove their family stories. Watching people light up with joy at hearing a newly unearthed story, or joy at finally knowing their stories are true – THAT is what does it for me.
Tracing My Tree, Finding My Roots 