In the 1960's I located a microfilm of my family genealogy and printed it using a "state of the art" copy machine (remember the ones that turned brown over time!). The manuscript contained a wealth of information about the Cherry family with references as far back as the 1400's (although the actual genealogical linkages were only proven to the 1600's). The author, a distant cousin of mine, had started her work in 1917 and published it in 1955. The most technologically up-to-date tools available in those times were mechanical typewriters and the quality of my copy was quite hard to read. I felt that someday I would expand her research and bring it into the "Information Age".

Thanksgiving weekend, 1986 - I began to write a computer program as a personal effort to expand on her research and document my own roots. Never being completely satisfied, I continued to make changes to the software. The focus of the project soon shifted from updating "The Roots of the Cherry Tree" to the computer program itself. I showed my work to several of my coworkers at AT&T and they asked me for a copy of the program. Some even offered to pay me for it! That inspired me to run an advertisement in "Computer Shopper" magazine. The results weren't overwhelming but they did offset the cost of the ad. (The first check, dated March 19, 1987 and never cashed, is framed on my office wall).

The concept of "shareware" was still in its infancy but I decided to try and see if it really worked.

As a result FAMILY TREE JOURNAL is now used by thousands of people around the world to produce family history books.

June 1993 - Indianapolis, Indiana - the first annual Shareware Industry Awards ceremony - FAMILY TREE JOURNAL was honored as Best Home and Hobby Software. 

After Mary and I both retired from AT&T , we thought that we would be able to devote MORE time to CHERRY TREE SOFTWARE - but - "life is what happens when you're making other plans". We had planned on splitting much of our time between Ohio and California to care for Mary's father, Steve. For a while the three of us were able to "commute" with our motor home until Steve passed away November 1996. During that time we were also given custody of our grandson, Drew. (Sometimes you get an egg laid in your empty nest!)

September 1997, Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer. We continued to spend as much time as we could with the project but, sometimes, more important things got in the way.

Most of 1997-1998, we became preoccupied with, lumpectomy, mastectomy, breast reconstruction, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments. We also shuffled Drew between schools in Ohio and California so the seasonal plans that we had became slightly skewed. Cherry Tree Software became a very low priority. We were quite optimistic with her progress and returned to California during the Christmas/New Years season of 1998-1999. Routine medical tests in January of 1999, prior to some additional breast surgery to relieve the discomfort that Mary was experiencing with her reconstruction surgery, revealed that the cancer had reappeared in her liver and lungs.

On March 10, 1999, while in California, Mary lost her battle. At that point I was ready to give up on everything including ever updating my software.

In 2000, I began to exchange emails with a lady who had experienced much of the same things when her husband suffered a fatal brain aneurysm just as the "good life" was about to begin for the both of them. I was just surfing around the Internet one day, reading the local newspaper on line, clicked on the classified ads, and then on a link to one of those online dating services. Just for fun, I entered my information and up popped Dot's picture. She was my age, divorced, remarried, retired and widowed, just like me. Because of our similar backgrounds I thought that one of my kids had somehow invented and "planted" her profile for me to find.

After exchanging emails for awhile, Dot invited me to a friend's birthday party. The "date" lasted four days and we have been together ever since.

We now live here in NW Ohio, have a Napoleon address but are actually closer to the Holgate metropolitan area. Holgate is world famous as the birth place of comedian, Joe E. Brown. Rush hour on our road only occurs during planting and harvest seasons and consists mostly of John Deeres rather than Fords and Chevys.

This is the most current arial view of our house taken in October 2003.

Dot and I have teamed up, as business partners as well as romantically and, once again, I have found the desire to resurrect Family Tree Journal.