Heritage Discoveries, LLC

If you're a lawyer or trust professional and you need to locate missing heirs, a forensic genealogist can help! I have expanded my genealogy services by combining my genealogy skills with my 20+ years as a lawyer.
Contact me by email, phone, or Messenger for more information on how I can assist you to locate missing and unknown heirs in probate, real estate, mineral rights, and other cases.

Heritage Discoveries doing heritage things.
Visiting the grave site of Zora Neale Hurston, the iconic African American anthropologist and writer who spent much of her life and career in Florida. She died in Ft. Pierce in 1960, where a terrific heritage trail has been established.

The right to vote is something no one should ever take for granted. Certainly, remembering those who were not afforded this right for much of the nation's history is a sobering reminder of just how important it is for all of us to exercise the power of the vote.
I was lucky enough to work on a project with my grad school advisor researching the life of Rev. Henry M. Dillard, an early African American leader in Tampa and one of the founding settlers of the Spring Hill community. I've continued to work on discovering his story, and while doing so, located this record - the Return of Qualified Voters for 1867 in Stewart County, Georgia. Voter no. 869, just a few lines up from the bottom, is Mansfield Dillard, Henry's father, who just two years earlier had been enslaved. Finding this record of his voter registration - along with the many pages of other African American men in the registry - is truly a treasure. And, of course, a reminder of how very important and meaningful this fundamental right is for all of us.
So if you haven't voted yet, go out there and get it done. And give Mansfield a little nod when you do.

"Archaeologists Unearth Foundations of One of the Nation’s Oldest Black Churches"

Archaeologists Unearth Foundations of One of the Nation's Oldest Black Churches A dig in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg revealed sections of the First Baptist Church, which was founded in 1776

The 1873 Colfax Massacre Crippled the Reconstruction Era One of the worst incidents of racial violence after the Civil War set the stage for segregation

Historical Records in the time of Covid-19

While we’re not able to visit most archives right now, the availability of archival records online has really exploded. Many records that once could only be seen in person are now digitized and available online. This is especially helpful when your ancestry takes you outside of the US, as my Dutch ancestry does.
This image is the marriage registration of my 9th great-grandparents on my maternal line. I was able to find this document in a record book from 1647-48 that tells us that on January 22, 1648, Gerrit Claese van Sondsbeek (born 27 Nov 1620 in Oudewater, Utrecht, Netherlands) married Dirkie Jans (born 1628 in Oudewater, Utrecht, Netherlands) in Oudewater, Netherlands.
The Dutch were/are *master* record keepers and centuries of marriages, births, and deaths can be found in municipal and church records across the country. This document is held by the Utrecht Archives and through today’s technology, I can return to that time and know just a bit more about my ancestors!
Do you know where your ancestors are from? You might be able to visit them right from your couch!

Welcome to our new page and thank you for following! We’re excited to share this journey with you and hope that this page will offer helpful information about genealogy, family history, heritage, and other stories from the past. Look for tips, featured resources and services, and interesting stories from other genealogists and historians around the world.
Have questions? Post here or send us a message. And for more information about what we do and who we are, please visit our website at www.heritagediscoveries.com. Thanks, and again, welcome!

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