My name is Mary Johlfs and this is my family tree web site. I have been interested in genealogy since I was a little girl. I loved looking at the pictures my grandmothers had of their families and hearing stories about their childhoods. This got me wondering about their parents and grandparents. The problem, I discovered, was my grandparents knew very little about their families in Europe. No one wanted to talk about the "old country".

In the early 1990's, I started on my genealogy quest again. Living in the Washington, DC area gave me easy access to the National Archives. Here I spent Saturday afternoons poring over census records and ship passenger lists. The more I found, the more I realized I didn't know.

Along the way, I have had the pleasure of meeting distant cousins, some through correspondence only and some in person. I am grateful for all of the information, letters, and photos they have entrusted to me. I am humbled by the effort people have made to assist me in my search, including, but not limited to, traveling to neighboring towns to take photos, translating documents, sending me maps and scans, and driving me to parish cemeteries to help me search for headstones! This site is a work in progress. Please drop me a line if you find it helpful. I also welcome any further information you might have!

As I said, I live outside of Washington, DC. I have been running marathons and ultramarathons since 1993 and continue to pursue my goal of completing a marathon in every state. I am up to 24. I am also an avid cyclist and have been fortunate enough to spend the last several summers in Europe, cycling through the hills of France and Italy. Soon I hope to travel to Germany and England to visit my ancestral homes. Life is good!
~ Namasté