Who Am I?
I am a writer, a web designer and a social historian.
In my previous lives, I was a stay at home mother, a school bus driver and an electromechanical engineering technician specializing in hydraulics and power transmissions. In addition, I’ve had minor life episodes in crafting, photography, retail, inventory control, purchasing, sales, teaching, and accounting.
I currently work as a Senior Manager in IT Operations when I’m not writing, designing websites, or researching social history.
Freelance writer for hire for magazines, journals or short stories.
Technical manual writer, and copywriter.
WordPress web designer from domain registration to final product.
Accomplished speaker for topics ranging from technology, to history or genealogy.
Genealogist who can find your ancestors and tell their stories.
Profile Picture
Some of my highlights
My favourite projects are ones that combine writing, design and research. Check out some of my favourite creations by clicking the title links.
The Social Historian is a longform story website featuring social history themed articles across the centuries and around the world.
National Institute: Social History Course
Social History is an introduction to social history that will provide examples and resources of subject matter from many areas of interest to the social historian.
Out of My Tree Genealogy News is a website where family history enthusiasts will find the latest news, website and software reviews, tips and tricks guaranteed to take their genealogy obsession to the next level.
WordPress for XYZ is a relatively new website for bloggers. If you spend your time doing something that you love and then share what you know with others by blogging about it, WordPress for XYZ is the right place to be. Whether you are just thinking about transitioning from Blogger or WordPress.com or you are a long-time hosted WordPress user, you will find great theme recommendations, helpful plugin recommendations and useful tutorials to help you get your WordPress website up and running, so you can get back to the business of doing what you love.
Writing a book is something that has been on my to do list for my whole life so I’m pretty excited that my first book, Tracing Your Ancestors’ Lives: A Guide for the Family Historian will be published 30 April 2017 by Pen and Sword. The work is just over 60,000 words and took about a year to research and write.
Concentrating on the history of the UK, Social History for the Genealogist is not intended as a comprehensive study of social history but instead an exploration of the various aspects of the topic of particular interest to you, the family historian. This book is a guide to your journey beyond the names, dates and places in your pedigree charts back to the time and place where your ancestors lived. Use the research advice, resources and case studies in this book as you learn about your ancestors, their families and the society they lived in and record their stories for the generations to come.
Just enough research is how I begin to write.
The challenge of course, is knowing how much research is enough research. Then I write. I outline, then fill in the blanks between, drawing on the research to keep the reader interested. Then I let the words sit for a day or two or even a week until they’ve set and then I read out loud to the cat.
Of course, the cat seldom says anything, but will often meow in agreement if I suggest that a certain passage is awkward and needs a rewrite.
I definitely have a diverse set of hobbies.
I like technology, crafts, gardening, web design, family history and photography. And finally, I read.
To say that reading is a hobby is a little like saying that breathing is a hobby, but I’m sure that some would consider it one.
My Editor and Biggest Critic, Cody the Cat

Here’s The Good Stuff. Some of My Latest Work Is Featured Below.
- Tracing Your Ancestors Lives: A Guide for Family HistoriansBarbara J Starmans2017-10-07T16:24:59+00:00
Tracing Your Ancestors Lives: A Guide for Family Historians
- Explore the 20 Next Big Things in Family HistoryBarbara J Starmans2017-02-20T15:51:34+00:00
Explore the 20 Next Big Things in Family History
- General Paresis of the InsaneBarbara J Starmans2017-02-20T13:13:25+00:00
General Paresis of the Insane
- 5 Steps to Rock-solid ResearchBarbara J Starmans2017-02-20T14:26:42+00:00
5 Steps to Rock-solid Research