Welcome to Family Roots Revealed

Every family has a story worth telling, but tracking it down takes time, expertise, and access to records that may be hard to find. That's where Family Roots Revealed comes in. I'm Dana Darby, a genealogist with more than 40 years of experience performing all types of research, from on-site visits to online documents. We can help you trace your ancestry, write a family history book, add more generations to your family tree, and create easy-to-read books from the letters, diaries, and other documents your ancestors wrote — preserving your family's history in a beautiful heirloom that can be passed down for generations.

We provide the following services:

  • Trace a specific family line back as far as records allow

  • Confirm or investigate family stories and legends

  • Transcribe old handwritten letters, diaries, and other documents so you can uncover interesting or important facts, enable future generations to read them without knowing cursive, and have them in digital format that can be updated as technology advances

  • Research a specific ancestor's life in depth, including military service, immigration, land ownership, and more

  • Create beautiful, professional documents that can be shared or printed

  • Break through a genealogical "brick wall" you've been stuck on

  • Visit the National Archives to obtain copies of records

  • Visit cemeteries located within a reasonable distance (Northern Virginia area) to take photos of headstones

We start every project by understanding what you're hoping to learn, so our work stays focused on what matters most to you. Visit our Services page for more detailed descriptions of our services.

Your Results, Delivered

Family Roots Revealed delivers your project results as follows:

  • Genealogy Research Report — A complete report in one digital file prepared by a document specialist experienced in producing professional, well-written volumes.

  • Document Transcriptions — Your original letters or records safely returned in archival-quality sleeves, accompanied by clean, typed transcriptions. If you elect to send us photographs of your old documents, we will provide an electronic file containing the typed version of the contents.

  • Recipe Keepsake Book — A beautifully formatted electronic cookbook of your family’s recipes

  • On-Site Photography — Clear, high-resolution digital photographs of original records from the National Archives or cemetery headstones.

A row of old, worn books on a shelf, with varying sizes and colors, some with torn or faded covers.
Close-up of old, worn handwritten letters on yellowed paper, stacked on top of vintage books with dark covers, placed on a wooden surface.
Bookshelves filled with old leather-bound books in a historic library with dark wooden structures.