About Richard

Richard is a well respected author and researcher.  He began as a genealogy researcher in 1977 and has written four books on genealogy, numerous genealogy articles, and has been a contributing editor to an eastern states genealogy magazine. In 2003, Richard launched his website, Mennosearch.com .  It links emigrants from Switzerland and Germany to Pennsylvania and Virginia.  He has helped thousands of people learn of their family origins.

Richard has researched in archives all across the United States, as well as archives in England, Scotland, Wales, Germany and Switzerland.  He received his bachelor’s degree in International Relations and European Studies at Brigham Young University in 1980. 

He is available to research records for you for the United States, England, Scotland, Wales, Switzerland and Germany.  He specializes in tracing your ancestors from the early 1900s back to the 1700’s and can sometimes take your ancestors back to the 1600’s and 1500’s depending on their location.

He lives close to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, which allows him to search many records on your ancestors in a very short time.  There is no need to travel around the world to find information on your ancestors when you can find most of those records in Salt Lake City.  The library has county records, will records, deed records, marriage records, tax records, church records (baptisms, marriages and deaths) from numerous countries all located in one place.  If the record is not located there, Richard can, when possible, send for copies of those records.   

Richard was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area in California. He also spent several years living in Italy and a couple of summers in England and Wales.  Richard and his wife Lisa have five children and four grandchildren.  They have been married for 29 years.