Claire’s introduction to genealogy began when she started working for a missing heir company in 2008, under the direction of a licensed private investigator. This job took her all around Connecticut, to probate courts, town clerks offices and libraries. She became good at teasing out information from records and combined this with extensive online research to identify and locate missing heirs and beneficiaries quickly. Soon she became the senior researcher, working on the biggest cases, writing reports for courts and coordinating genealogists nationally and internationally to assist with research. This job fostered her deep seated passion for history, an interest which began in high school and which grew through doing a degree in American Studies at the University of Manchester, UK and a year long museum internship in Tempe, Arizona.

While missing heir research tends to concentrate in the twentieth century, since 2012 Claire has also undertaken many family history projects, using her established research skills to uncover information from eighteenth and nineteenth century records. She has particular knowledge of Connecticut resources. Through online databases she often assists in researching families from other states and even overseas, requiring her to take on a project manager role.

Claire became a Board Certified Genealogist in February 2012. Since 2013 she has been utilizing her forensic genealogy skills through her work on US Army military repatriation cases for SNA International (sna-intl.com). Since 2016 she has additionally worked for American Global Heir Search (www.aghs.com), now leading their billable department and working with attorneys and private companies to locate missing heirs and beneficiaries of estates and trusts.

Claire enjoys the challenge that research brings and is excited to help others with their genealogical mysteries.