Family History, it seems to me, is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Each piece, a person or an event, correctly fits in exactly one position. The challenge is to find the correct place for the piece, but oftentimes just finding the piece involves a great deal of detective work. I like to operate on one basic rule: "Every person who has ever lived had a birthday, a mother and a father." From there it's just a matter of finding the other details.

I've been deeply involved in our family history work for over two decades now, and I still enjoy it as much as I ever did. We've had some tremendous breakthroughs including finding the correct origin of my great-grandfather, Sidney Henri Belmont, Sr., and correctly identifying our ancestor, William Monk.

The work continues. There's always more to be done. I am currently working on:

• Locating and examining original source material for our family history,
• An extensive survey of the name "Patch" in England and Wales.
• Gathering as much information about Charles Monk's (b. 1832) family in England.
• Creating online resources for my great-great-grandparents' family history.