Welcome to Backstory Bloodhound!!!

Please give me an opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Rick Allen. I have always lived in southern Illinois and recently moved to Metropolis (The Home of Superman!). My father’s family is from Marshall County, Kentucky and my mother’s family is from Pope County, Illinois. 

After many years of thinking about it, I have finally launched my own historical and genealogical business initiative. I have chosen the name Backstory Bloodhound because I think the bloodhound most accurately represents what I seek to do. Each of us individually and collectively has a backstory – it is our history. What and who came before us! What makes us who we are? Whose blood flows through our veins and whose DNA have we inherited? Learning and knowing about this is only a natural part of our makeup. As stated on the website, the bloodhound relentlessly pursues his prey and in order to accurately and objectively determine the backstory of anything (your family, your community, an event, etc.), it is necessary to relentless sift through the fragments of information that have survived and been passed down to us. Finding them and analyzing them takes time and skill.

I bring a lot of experience to this task. I have actually been researching my own family history since I was a teenager. (See blog on Mollie Duvall Hall) I have learned a LOT along the way. When I first started, you had to spend hours scrolling through microfilm at a library just to access something so basic as a census record. In today’s world, we have the internet which has helped us to digitize and preserve valuable genealogical records. We also have new ways of sharing information which can be good or bad I suppose, depending on the quality of information being shared. Yet, the principles of solid genealogical research are still the same. I strongly adhere to the Genealogical Proof Standard whose five elements are:

1) reasonably exhaustive research

2) complete and accurate source citations

3) analysis and correlation of the collected information

 4) resolution of any conflicting evidence

                       5) a soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion

Over the years, I have continued to update my skills. You will see specifics of this on my website. I continue to do this by attending conferences and courses regularly. I conducted client research from 1997 to 2007 until a personal situation changed my priorities. I worked in the health insurance industry for nearly 33 years, retiring in 2016 to pursue my dream of obtaining a Master of Arts degree in History. I completed that degree in 2017 and have been teaching American History since then for Southeast Missouri State University.

How can I help with your genealogical research? Like the bloodhound, I will relentlessly pursue your family research and focus on your objective. I am intimately familiar with the kinds of resources available to solve various problems, particularly those in the Midwestern and Southern United States. I am familiar with and subscribe to a myriad of genealogical sources online. I am familiar with and can access on-site resources in southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and southeast Missouri (for more details on specific counties, see website). I can help you analyze your DNA results and determine what type of testing may be beneficial to meet your objective. But I think most of all, I have success in analyzing problems and solving brick-wall problems. I will present a few of them to you in upcoming blogs.

My research is not limited exclusively to genealogical research. I will also conduct historical research within the region. This might be something such as a house history, the history of a community or a church, or even an event or historical person. Our region’s history is fascinating and there are treasure troves of unpublished materials available to those who diligently search. I have several ideas about making these types of records more available so keep watching my blog for updates on this as well.

Finally, let me encourage you to check back here regularly. I will be posting new information all the time.