Welcome. My name is Donna Dimmick and I am the owner of Pastlinks Genealogical Services. The intent of this site is twofold. First, to provide a place for prospective clients to get a sense of who I am and what I can offer in the way of genealogical services. Secondly, it is a place where I can post some of my personal genealogical challenges to the "world" so that others might contribute to the research or benefit from what I've already done.

I have been researching my own family since the late 1980s. It started with a local cemetery that I passed every day on my way to and from work. I had a memory of my grandmother's burial in the cemetery in 1961. By the time I stopped to visit my remembrances in 1991, the Historic Union Cemetery in Redwood City, California was terribly run down and vandalized. Virtually all wooden markers had been burned as firewood and many of the other monuments and crypts had suffered terrible desecration. It was a very depressing place.

However, in wandering through the cemetery I found three plots with combinations of names I recognized but whose relationships I didn't understand. The most likely person to answer my questions was my mother and she also didn't know why certain surnames seemed to be buried in each others plots! Thus, a mystery, and the perfect starting place for a budding genealogist. There were four generations of my extended family buried in that cemetery before burials were closed in the 1960s.

So, as a start, and long before things were easily found on the Internet, I began haunting the local Clerk-Recorder's office. First I discovered vital records. Next, probate records. Then, land records. Then the local archives with books, maps, photos and newspaper clippings. The nearby National Archives branch in San Bruno had printed census indexes and microfilm. It wasn't a quick or smooth process, but living in the county seat and close to a National Archives branch was a definite plus.

I was hooked and continue to this day with research my family lines and those of my husband. As this site expands, I hope to add pages for those.

I started Pastlinks originally as a URL to separate my personal genealogical research email from my business email. I chose it because I see the research I do as a way of linking present people and families with those who came before. The links are far more than just names and dates and certainly more than just a tree with direct relatives. Each generation has parents, siblings, cousins and other collateral relatives, plus historical events that are unique to their time that provide an opportunity to learn the why as well as the who and where of that generation.

After 20+ years of personal research and a few projects helping friends, I began to feel like there was more to do with this "obsession" than just personal research. My career as a project manager in marketing communications was helpful, but spending time on various genealogy blogs and sites made me realize that there was also a whole world of "professional" out there that needed more exploration. So, in addition to subscribing to various genealogically-related blogs and websites, I enrolled in the Genealogical Research Program at Boston University. This is a semester-long course that results in a well respected certificate. I consider that certificate a stepping stone to an eventual certified genealogist certification from the Board for Certification of Genealogists but that's a future goal.

In addition to successful completion of the Boston University certification course, I have current memberships in the Association of Professional Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society, the California Genealogical Society, the New England Historic and Genealogical Society and several paid research sites.

Research in California is interesting because, as a very young state, it doesn't take long for research into families here to jump, eastward in the U.S. or out of the U.S., to somewhere else. That said, there is a definite place for those of us who have a passion for the history of the Golden State and who also understand the motivations and migration patterns of those who moved here. I have that passion, and due to multiple family lines who arrived here between the late 1850s and mid-20th century, I have a good understanding of those newly arrived Californians.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and have a good understanding of the resources available there. As a current resident of a rural Sierra foothill community only 8 miles from where the California Gold Rush began, I have access to resources and repositories that are unique to this area. Local research in El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties is within a half hour drive. In addition, the California State Library in Sacramento, with it's extensive collection, is nearby.