Who We Are

Ancestral Research Bureau is a team of professional genealogists specializing in finding lost ancestors

Our particular specialization is helping you make connections to your immigrant ancestors.  Our team has a proven track record in helping North American families 1) trace their family lines back to their American point of origin, and 2) bridge the Atlantic.

Our team has accomplished the following:

▪ We have helped clients with only a family story about a grandfather trace 10 generations of that grandfather’s family (and allied families) back to the point of immigration.

▪ We have enabled the same clients to verify their European villages of origin and to add multiple European generations to their family trees.

▪ We have proven lineages for multiple clients to enter DAR/SAR.

▪ For several clients who who approached us with only vague family stories, we have put these clients in touch with cousins who have vastly enriched their knowledge of their roots.

▪ We have verified family stories of African-American clients through solid research and extended the lineage of these clients back to the pre-Emancipation period.

▪ We have compiled extensive family histories for clients that are now being used by family associations.

▪ We are routinely asked to make presentations at genealogical societies and to publish genealogical articles.

▪ We have identified the villages of origin of many of our own ancestors, visited those villages, connected to cousins there, and pursued research in European records.
The Ancestral Research Bureau team consists of three skilled researchers, each of who has over 30 years’ experience researching his/her own family tree, along with the genealogies of clients:

▪ William Dennis Lindsey holds master’s degrees in English and religious studies, as well as a doctoral degree in religious studies with a specialization in church history.  He is the author of numerous genealogical articles.  His area of specialization is assisting families with Southern U.S. ancestry to link to their immigrant ancestors.

▪ Stephen John Schafer holds a master’s and doctoral degree in religious studies.  With German (and Austrian, Bohemian, or Moravian) ancestry on all of his family lines, he has managed to track almost each of his families back to their European place of origin, to connect to cousins overseas, and to extend most family lines back to the 1700s or earlier.

▪ Amanda Dicken has done extensive research in the “mother” states of the Old South, including Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.  A South Carolina native, she is expert in using land and court records to build extended family networks in the colonial states of the Old South.

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