"It is my privilege to express my appreciation for the services provided by Teresa Shippy as she searched and completed the genealogy for both my family and also my husband's. What a gift she has and now we can pass it on!!"

​--Helen Fulton

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-​"Teresa solved a genealogical mystery for me that had eluded every amateur sleuth in my family for almost 100 years, namely, 'who was James W. Coswell?' (my grandfather) [see Publications page].  My mother went to her grave not knowing the true identity of her own father.  I myself spent years of fruitless effort to uncover even a single shred of information about a man who seemed to mysteriously appear out of thin air as a Boston hotel clerk with a wife (my grandmother) and baby (my mother) around 1920.  Who were his parents?  Where was he born?  Where did he live?  Did he have siblings?  He did not appear in even a single census, directory, church or municipal record prior to 1920.  Those he claimed as his own parents also appeared to be ghosts—like him, they were also completely absent from the historical record and seemed not to exist. Teresa revealed the full story of my grandfather—a story that left no doubt that truth really is stranger than fiction, and she provided my family with a story of mystery and adventure that we will enjoy retelling for generations. In unravelling this story, Teresa showed not only a command of available records and how to access them, but also a creativity and sixth sense that buoyed her over hurdles that had utterly mired everyone in my family.  She guessed correctly about misspellings in the historical record, and she correctly surmised that a fictitious character that we all thought my grandfather had invented for his own amusement was actually his true self!  Thank you, Teresa!"

--Dick Beeman