Lee J Ballard, Author

From an early age, Lee has been intensely curious about how the past weighs on our present. He is an independent genealogist, historian, and thinker. After years of navigating the fast-paced world of databases and ASP.NET, Lee has returned to his first love. Now, indulging the giant introvert monkey on his back, Lee reads, analyzes, and writes about the past.

Lee specializes in Southern United States, Oregon Trail and early German immigration history and genealogy. His family tree reaches back to some of the earliest English settlers of Virginia, Nantucket, and Connecticut. In addition, significant portions of his paternal grandmother's people were Anabaptists from Switzerland and southern Germany (which opens up all sorts of questions relating to the Christian faith). On his mother's side, he has deep roots in Missouri and Texas, back to some of the first settlers in the state of Alabama, and, before that, the Carolinas before the Revolutionary War. All of these connections ground Lee in a sense of history that informs almost every aspect of his life.

In addition to these interests, Lee is an avid outdoorsman, musician (has recently picked up the mandolin after nearly two decades of guitar), and gamer.