About

We start with my great grandparents, the Finkbiners.  Family lore was that we had roots that went back several centuries to the beginning of American history.  That turned out to be true!  

Family Photos handed-down to me have been peppered throughout the site to bring it to life!  

Helen, Olive, Bayly and George

This photo was taken June 3, 1939 at the wedding of Bayly and Olive. Her sister Helen was Maid-of-Honor and his brother George was the Best Man. 

Finkbiner Family Tree
Blanchard Family Tree

Research

Ancestry.com

I’m Shannon.  I got hooked on genealogy research in 2009 when I started building our family tree on ancestry.com.  These screenshots show the first six generations, starting with my grandfather and his two brothers. On the tree you can see:

  • photos of our relatives, 
  • state flags indicating where they were born, 
  • flags indicating military service, 
  • empty silhouettes when we have hit a roadblock. 


The @ before the name indicates a DNA match (and we are getting more matches all the time!)

I connected with my second cousin, Kristen, through ancestry.com and she has also done extensive genealogical research on our family.

Detailed Stories

Family History Blog

In 2014, I started Our Family Tree Tales, a blog that tells the stories of our ancestors.  It includes all branches of the tree.  To find the 33 Finkbiner and Blanchard stories, go to the Bayly Finkbiner Page or use search.   

Sharing Family History

Family History Website

In 2018, this website was born. I’m a website designer and it has been so much fun working on this family site.  I wanted to take the data of our family and explore it in a new way.  I hope you enjoy it and share it with other family members!

Contact Me:

  • To request an invitation to view the family tree on ancestry.com.  (It’s free!)
  • To ask a question, or add information to our family tree!