User:LeeTHawkins

= About =

Location: North Olmsted, Ohio, United States, a western suburb of Cleveland.

Primary Trades: Photography, Information Technology, Project Management

Secondary Trades (I probably do these well enough to get paid, but haven't yet--so far...): Cartography, Genealogy

In a nutshell, I like:


 * Photography since it is a creative art and science I am passionate about - it is very satisfying to capture people, places, and events in a way that shows their soul.
 * Information Technology
 * Project Management because, "I love it when a plan comes together."
 * Cartography since I just love to see how places connect together, and then represent it in an obvious and easy way.
 * Genealogy simply because I think I like to know where we all come from and how we eventually got where we are today. It's also incredible when you discover how an ancestor or near relative left their fingerprints on a community you are now a part of over a century later...that they saw they same places you now see, just at a different time.

= Research Interests =

Mostly I've worked only on my own and my wife's family trees, also fleshing out aunts, uncles, and cousins as much as possible. Often I do my research in spurts, where I may spend a lot of time in the course of a week or so, and then something else in life takes priority. I find local and family history very relaxing and rewarding, which contrasts with the many stresses of everyday life. Even the most challenging genealogical mystery is fun to solve!

Also, I enjoy reading local histories, especially for the Connecticut Western Reserve region here in Northeast Ohio. I am a walking road atlas and am intimately familiar with many aspects of Ohio history and geography. I enjoy reading about history for other places throughout the United States as well, especially when I travel--I always make a point of understanding how a place has become what it is today!

Places
To date, I have done the bulk of my research in the following areas (in order of familiarity):


 * United States
 * Ohio
 * Lorain County
 * Medina County
 * Cuyahoga County
 * Columbiana County
 * Mahoning County
 * Stark County
 * Erie County
 * Huron County
 * Pennsylvania
 * Allegheny County
 * Massachusetts
 * Berkshire County
 * Connecticut
 * New Haven County
 * Maryland
 * Harford County
 * New York
 * United Kingdom
 * England
 * Staffordshire

I am working through the list of these places to improve the wiki content to share everything I've learned in my past research. I'm hoping that at some point, some of the articles I've worked on will make it to Featured Article status. If you ever need any help with researching in Ohio, I'm happy to assist! Having been a resident of Northeast Ohio my entire life, I am very familiar with the history and geography here, and am always interested in solving a mystery...especially if no one else has been able to solve it yet :-) I am also interested in learning new things, so if you come across something and have more accurate or improved detail to offer, please do! There are so many different viewpoints in history, which is what makes it so interesting and challenging!!!