About

Hi.  I’m Kerry Scott.  I’m a genealogist.  This is my blog.

I didn’t start out this way, and neither did Clue Wagon.  I used to be a corporate HR executive, and this used to be a blog about how to get a job.  You can read more about that here.

I was always interested in my family history.  When I was a junior in high school, one of my relatives started talking about the old aunts and uncles and grandparents.  I took notes on the only thing that was handy—a paper bag.  I still have it.

A few years later, I moved from Los Angeles to Milwaukee.  An elderly relative wrote and said that my great-great-great-grandparents were buried in West Bend, Wisconsin.  This was news to me, since I’d never been to Wisconsin, and as far as I knew my family hadn’t either.  I went up and found their graves, along with a big fat file about them at the local historical society.  I was hooked.  I spent the next seven years doing research in Wisconsin and Minnesota (and a whole bunch of work at the National Archives and the Library of Congress).  I learned a lot.

Then I got married.  Then my corporate career took off.  Then I had a baby, and another.  I spent 10 years focusing on other things.  My research sat in two big black filing cabinets, untouched.  I missed it terribly, but I couldn’t find a way to work on it while getting all of the other stuff done.

When I left HR after my second child was born to be a stay-at-home mom and figure out what my next move would be, I thought about becoming a professional genealogist.  It took a year and a half to work up the courage to commit to actually doing it.  I finally did.  It feels great.

So now I’m working through my old research, enrolling in refresher courses, and generally spending all of my non-diaper-changing time pursuing this goal.  It’s a huge challenge, but I’m having a fantastic time.

If you have a question, or you like the blog, or you hate the blog, or you just want to say hi, you can drop me a line at kerry [at] cluewagon [dot] com.  My response time will depend on whether I can get my kids to nap simultaneously, so I apologize in advance for being slow. It’s not you, it’s me.  If you prefer me in 140-character increments, and want genealogy clues PLUS insight into what the letter and number of the day are on Sesame Street, you can follow me on Twitter.