Mission

The mission of Back To Your Roots is to provide clients with answers to their genealogy-related research problems in a professional manner.  Each problem is thoroughly researched and analyzed employing the Board of Certified Genealogists' Genealogy Proof Standards (GPS).  Each client is provided with a final report documenting the analysis, summary of findings, a research log, and source documents.  When appropriate, recommendations for further research are also included. 

About Deborah Harvey

Deborah Harvey is the founder and principle researcher of Back To Your Roots. In 2013 following over 30 years of genealogy research, she began her family history research while living in Northern Virginia at the National Archives and the Fairfax County Library’s Virginia Reading Room. In 1987, Ms. Harvey relocated to her family’s home since the 1700s in Nelson County, Virginia and began in-depth research into her family’s roots utilizing local county court records and state-wide historical and genealogical resources including Jones Memorial Library, the University of Virginia Special Collections Library, Virginia Historical Society collections, the Library of Virginia, Family History Library, and many others. Ms. Harvey has documented most of the lines of her family tree back to the early 1800s and beyond. Additionally, she has traced many of the consanguineal lines across the United States. 

An engineer and defense intelligence analyst by training and career paths, Ms. Harvey applies the same logical analytical approaches used throughout her career to successfully address genealogical challenges and ‘brick wall’ problems. Her research projects have spanned most of the United States with particular emphasis on Virginia and surrounding states.  She has conducted research on families with origins in Scotland, Ireland, and Canada and consulted with The Learning Channel's (TLC) "Who Do You Think You Are?"  Her true joy comes in not only Identifying a family's lineage, but uncovering the family's history as documented in deeds, chancery court records, court records, order books, manuscripts, newspapers and other resources and providing clients with an appreciation and understanding of their family's roots.