Olive Tree Genealogy began sometime in the winter of 1995 but it wasn't until February 1996 that it was given space on the old Rootsweb site.
That site is still online at http://rootsweb.com/~ote/ and it holds all the "extra" free databases and goodies that I don't have room for on Olive Tree Genealogy at http://olivetreegenealogy.com/
Eventually I purchased my own domain name "Olive Tree Genealogy" and set up another site as a companion to my "Ote" site.
I am often asked why I created Olive Tree Genealogy. After my husband died in 1993 and I was injured at school by a student, my enforced inactivity and loneliness was pretty tough to take. A friend suggested I learn how to set up a website on this new phenonemon called "the internet".
Many of the big sites we use today did not exist when I set up Olive Tree Genealogy. CyndisList came online right after me. Rootsweb started up around the same time. Ancestry.com didn't exist. Hard to imagine, isn't it? Olive Tree Genealogy is a senior in Internet days. Back then the few genealogy sites online were, as all sites were, battleship grey with no fancy bells and whistles like search engines!
I started with one ships passenger list and some historical articles I wrote about Huguenots, Walloons, Loyalists and Palatines. That ship's list was so popular and I received so many requests for more that I began hunting for others. Now Olive Tree Genealogy has over 1,500 ships lists online. And they're all free.
What am I up to now? Well I'm busy with writing my books and maintaining my blogs and websites as well as my personal genealogy research of course. Here's a list of my main blogs and websites.
Blogs
Olive Tree Genealogy
Ask Olive Tree
Ancestors At Rest
Past Voices: Letters Home
The Paper Trail
Antique Hunter
Ollie's Yummy in Your Tummy
Websites
Olive Tree Genealogy
Naturalization Records
Ancestors At Rest
All Census Records
The Genealogy Spot
Olive Tree Extras
Past Voices
The Great War
Canadian Military Heritage Project
Writing genealogy and history books also keeps me pretty busy! You can read a bit more about me if you are interested, or see some of the early versions of Olive Tree Genealogy at http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/olive-tree-genealogy-history.shtml
