10 Aug Genealogist for hire- Dancestors Genealogy in the local news paper: The Cross Timbers Gazette – August 2020
It’s All Relative for Highland Village Genealogist
*By Steve Gamel, Contributing Writer*
Dan Nelson has never been the type of guy to throw up his hands and quit when a trail appears to have run its course. So when a new client swore up and down that his ancestors were nothing more than regular people who led quiet, uninteresting lives, Dan took it as a challenge to find a few hidden branches on that family tree.
To his credit, the client was somewhat correct. Dan, a Certified Genealogist who has unearthed some fascinating stories in his day, found plenty of farmers and Midwesterners in his initial search. They were all salt-of-the-earth types who worked extremely hard and lived off the land until the day they died, but their stories were few and far between and certainly not that intriguing. That is, until Dan started looking into one ancestor by the name of Benjamin Smith.
“Here was a guy who was a Revolutionary War hero and patriot,” Dan said. “He escaped three times from captivity and suffered immensely. He became a privateer, and when the war ended, he went home and farmed for 40 years. Along the way, he thought, ‘Maybe people will want to hear about what I’ve done.’ So he wrote down his story.
“[The client] told me, ‘You won’t find any neat stories. We were boring.’ Now he has a fabulous story to share with family.”
Online research into one’s family history has become a booming business over the past decade, including the birth of websites such as 23andMe, MyHeritage…
*Article continues on Page A19.*
**Photo caption:** Dan Nelson spends his time shaking family trees. *(Photo by Nick Allen Photography)*
