An Interview with MGC Staff: Meet Cynthia

August 23, 2012

Cynthia loves doing genealogy research because, "Genealogy is discovering the decades I should have been born in."

Cynthia got started in genealogy because her husband’s family has such an interesting past. She wanted to discover more and more of this family’s history.

Her most exciting find was with her ancestor, William Shaw. Family lore said that William was a doctor. He supposedly was killed when he and his horse were struck by lightning. Using our resource books, Abstracts from the Perryville Weekly Union and the Perry County Sun newspapers, Cynthia discovered that William was a doctor who was "wholly uneducated, but possessed quite a fund of practical knowledge, and did considerable practice." Corroborating this family story was a definite high point in her genealogy research.

Cynthia loves searching for answers using the great print resources (books) here at the Midwest Genealogy Center. Her favorite MCPL database is Heritage Quest. Using the advanced search, she has been able to narrow her search parameters, which has helped her find some elusive ancestors.

Another love of Cynthia’s is searching the web. She often recommends helpful genealogy websites to fellow staff members. One of her most recent finds is an animated atlas of American History. Cynthia loves the historical timeline on this website because it breaks history into categories and color codes these categories. This is an easy to use website. “The video, Growth of a Nation, is definitely worth the ten minutes it will take you to view!”

Charlotte M. & Cynthia S.
Midwest Genealogy Center