About Me

At age 25, I was bit by the genealogy bug. You know what it’s like! Suddenly I was obsessed with adding names and dates to the branches of my family tree and collecting family memories. I received binders of family group sheets, piles of handwritten notes and random documents, and boxes of old photographs (unlabeled, of course!)

The more I learned more about my ancestors, the more I realized how many sacrifices they made so I could be here. I couldn’t just let their memories fade away on pieces of paper in my office! Since no one else in my family was as passionate as I was about genealogy, I began to worry…

What would happen to all my genealogy work if something were to happen to me?

In short, it became my life mission to preserve my family’s history in a way that could be shared with family now and with future generations.

Enter the age of digital genealogy technology…

Photos scanners. Genealogy database software. Digital cameras. Online family trees. Genetic DNA testing.

I began digitizing the piles of photos and documents and slowly adding them to my online family tree. I soon became overwhelmed as I got sidetracked and copied and pasted information from other people’s family trees into my own. When I came up for air, I realized I had thousands of people in my tree, but very few had any source citations stating where the information came from. I assumed that I could just look for and add the sources later on, but later never came.

Doubt creeps in…

I began to feel anxious when I thought about logging into my online family tree. What new “shaky leaf” would I need to click on? How do I merge the duplicate people that were copied into my tree? When would I ever have time to upload all of those photographs I scanned? Are all of those people REALLY my ancestors?

The branches of my online family tree became more like a tangled mess of roots. I started to doubt all of the work I had done. I had no idea how to create source citations and was confused by all of the different examples.

The more I learned about genealogy from professionals, the more I felt like a complete amateur. I was determined to keep my ancestors’ memories alive, but I felt lost.

I slowly realized that I wanted to study genealogy as a profession. I enrolled in classes and began to learn about genealogical standards. I even learned how to “craft” source citations. Instructors and colleagues showed me organizational methods to keep my workflow in order.

Slowly, I began to unravel my online family tree. Duplicates were merged. My ancestors began to have sources and photographs attached to their profiles. My tree began to thrive.

I realized that in addition to being passionate about genealogy and family history, I was also passionate about the organization process.

And best of all…

I realized that I wanted to help other busy and overwhelmed genealogy lovers to do the same thing.

I understand how having an unsourced and unorganized online family tree can negatively impact your confidence and productivity.

I can help!

My name is Sarene Bahr, professional genealogist and your Genealogy Virtual Assistant.

I’ve assisted busy genealogy enthusiasts just like you to have an organized and well-researched online family tree. I can help you start from scratch or unravel the mess you may already have.

You deserve to have an online family tree that can be shared with family now and be passed on to future generations!