Our Genealogy Journey
We began our journey with Genealogy in 2003 shortly after relocating to Florida. We learned while talking to Amy’s Grandmother Mae Elizabeth (Marsh) Holcomb that she did not know who her grandparents were on her father’s side. We decided to investigate through Ancestry where we eventually found her paternal Grandparents. We enjoyed the search and the success and decided to continue with genealogy. Amy’s paternal Great Grandmother; Lucia Frances (Gleason) Holcomb kept a scrapbook from the time she was a teenager with mostly newspaper clippings of family events. We used information from the scrapbook which Lucia maintained throughout her life. Mark’s Great Uncle, Alfred Overton Russell was also a part time genealogist focusing on the Russell family. Mark received a copy of his work which was the beginnings of the Russell genealogy we have today.
Research
Four Branches Genealogy is the product of approximately 20 years of research and careful documentation. As time has progressed we have added a considerable amount of information on our four families (our paternal and maternal lines). In 2019 we purchased and began adding DNA to our research. There is a steep learning curve to DNA for Genealogy. Most people seem to only be interested in their ethnicity, but there is an immense amount of information, family relationships to the very distant cousin levels that is available. Our main interest in DNA was to see if we could get past a genealogical brick wall: finding Frank Pierce Marsh’s true biological parents. This is part of our ongoing research for the Marsh family genealogy. For the Kosinski family genealogy we have found genealogy systems in Poland that have opened some doors into finding generations of Kosinski’s prior to the 1880’s. We are also furthering our research into the Szesciorka family, in particular the parents of Ann Szesciorka, Mark’s paternal grandmother.
Collaberation
If you are reading this and you are interested in Genealogy, are currently working on one or more of the same families we are researching we encourage you to reach out to us. We are very willing to share what information we have found and potentially offer any assistance you may need. All we ask in return; offer us the same by sharing what you have found and possibly offer us assistance as well.