Born in 1933 of Russian-Irish parents, in Chicago, IL, I can make no claim to the illustrious Austin heritage that my wife Liz can.  I can't even profess to have had a serious interest in genealogy, at least not at first.  It all started many years ago when Liz's mother, the family record keeper, finally got all of her notebooks together and Liz began to sort and combine all of the information on their family that had been collected.  Letters were sent to other relatives for their information, and these were added to the collection. Liz still has all of that information in bookcases in our "Gene Room", one of the bedrooms vacated when our kids moved out. 

During the intervening years, she has continued collecting photocopies, books, periodicals, etc. to the point where we now have twenty times what we had when this whole thing started.   I finally decided to "organize" all of this information by placing it on the computer.  This didn't take very long to do, probably only two years or so!  But I noticed that in doing so, we could easily see where we needed more information.  

I also started to correspond with other people searching our lines.  One of these, Carole Blanscet of Tustin, California (also a Richard descendant) sent me some information on the Austin Computer Project. Figuring that we could get additional information on the Austins, I made contact with Bill Minnick, a fellow engineer by the way, and one who appreciates organization, and strict discipline in documentation.  He also had a silver tongue, and a real need and so in March of 1992, I agreed to be compiler for the Richard Austin database.  

After 8 years of labor, the database was used to produce the reference book Some Descendants of Richard Austin of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1638.  The book represents the combined efforts of over 220 people, who worked to update, correct and extend the work of Edith Austin Moore's original book published in 1968.  But my job did not end with the publication of the book.  I am still maintaining the Richard Austin database, so keep those contributions coming!  And Liz continues to work Austin genealogies, not only for her family, but now for many others contacting her on the Internet.

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