My name is Katy Barnes.
I’m a professional genealogist fascinated by the travelers, the black sheep, the wanderers, the forgotten, and pioneers of all kinds.
Occasionally in my research (both personal and professional), I come across someone in a record set completely unrelated to the scope of my current work. They fascinate me because of just how out of place they seem – how far from home or how different from those around them. Perhaps they died young or had no children, and the odds of someone being aware of their existence today without descendants are slim.
I’m also the descendant of a few of those types – those people who, often for reasons unknown today, picked up and relocated hundreds or even thousands of miles away. A great-great-grandfather who alone of his nine siblings left his German roots in Maryland to settle the frontier plains of Texas. Another who spent almost his entire life in the Lone Star State only to uproot and head to Wyoming in his old age and widowhood. A grandmother who in the 1960s left Germany for the United States.
The pushes and pulls that led them to make the choices they did are as unique and varied as the people themselves: the lure of the open range, joining a new religion, fleeing family problems back home. Maybe they sought opportunity. Regardless, these kinds of people can often be difficult to trace if you don’t already know where they went.
My goal is to create a scrapbook of sorts, collecting these people and making them known. The hope is that a descendant on the other end will be able to find them on this site via a Google search and maybe solve that decades-long mystery.
Please note: It’s a hobby and in no way comprehensive (because how could it be?). I also have a full-time job, so entries will be more sporadic than I’d prefer.
My findings as presented here are free and publicly available, but I do not currently have any other information beyond what is already listed. If you’re interested in having professional genealogical research done on any part of your family tree worldwide (including an ancestor you may have found here), I and other expert researchers are available for hire via Legacy Tree Genealogists.
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