Those Who Made a Difference: 2500 Years of Family History

Sunday, January 12, 2014
Holocaust Memorial Center
11:00 AM

With author and JGSMI member Richard Jaeger

Over the course of twenty years of research, over 27,800 family members spanning over 2500 years were discovered and put into a database. While putting all of them into a family history would be an impossible task, some were of enough historical importance to deserve to be included; others had stories of interest, though not in the class of an Eleanor of Aquitaine, still were noteworthy of inclusion.

From Xerxes I, King of Persia and married to the Biblical Esther, Hadassah to Elizabeth II of England there were links to the same family. Included were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee who were all cousins. Their stories and how they related to maternal and paternal family of the author make for both fascinating reading as well as good cause to believe in the idea of six degrees of separation as it relates to genealogy.

Richard “Dick” Jaeger was born in New York and is a product of the New York City School System and the City University of New York where he got is BA in 1963. In 1971 he completed graduate work in Commercial and Insurance Law and Risk Management. For most of his working life he was an International Political Risks Analyst. In 1993 he began to research his family history in a project that still continues today. Dick is a frequent speaker at genealogy society meetings in Michigan and active in societies in various states and Great Britain. Dick is married to the former Caryn Brodie and they have three sons and five grandchildren.