Follow our family across generations. Discover the people behind the names, where their journeys began, and how four grandparent families became one.
A living family keepsake, growing as we discover more photographs, names, places, and stories.A growing family archive
Each record began with a person, a family, or a small clue. Together, they help us remember lives that might otherwise be forgotten.
Relatives and ancestors whose names we have connected across generations.
Recorded parents, partners, and children linking one generation to the next.
Research references to census records, obituaries, registers, books, and family documents.
Individual clues about people, dates, places, and relationships drawn from our research.
A snapshot of our family tree and private research archive, October 2026. The collection keeps growing.
Start with a grandparent, follow their parents and grandparents, or search for a familiar surname. This interactive view currently follows 1,364 people through the four grandparents; our larger family tree includes many more relatives and family connections.
Results show the branch, relationship, and direct path context when it can be determined.
This interactive view follows parents, grandparents, and earlier generations. Other relatives and family photographs can be explored through the ancestor profiles and family archive. Not every name in our growing collection appears here yet.
Our family did not begin in a single country or village. Its story came together through four grandparents, each carrying generations of different places and people into the lives we know.
Donald Walter Melick
The Melick family crossed from German-speaking river towns to the farms and mills of colonial New Jersey. Dutch-descended families and the Beavers branch became part of Don's wider family story.
Follow Don's ancestors ↗
Evelyn Lorraine Kennedy
Evelyn grew up in dairy-farming country. Behind the Kennedys and Wainwrights were older New Jersey families, with connections reaching toward England, Ireland, France, and the communities of early West Jersey.
Follow Evelyn's ancestors ↗
Dale C. Ritter
The Ritter, Bilger, and related branches connect Dale with German-speaking Europe, Switzerland, and generations of Pennsylvania life—from farms and workshops to railroads and the Mack Trucks era.
Follow Dale's ancestors ↗
Nancy Kovish Ritter
Nancy's family came from eastern Slovak villages and historical Galicia, now largely in Ukraine. Those journeys met in Pennsylvania, where the Kovish and Dwornak families became one.
Follow Nancy's ancestors ↗Different places. Different generations. One family.
Read the complete family heritage story ↗From Pennsylvania and New Jersey to villages across Europe, these are the birthplaces that appear in our interactive family tree. See which places appear most often among each grandparent's relatives.
Each number counts people in this part of our family tree born in that area.
Darker shading = more people recorded.
| Recorded birthplace | Nancy | Dale | Don | Evelyn |
|---|
These are counts of recorded birthplaces, not percentages of our ancestry. Places and borders changed over time; the Heritage page tells more of the stories behind them.
The tree helps us see the connections. The portraits, records, and family stories bring those connections to life.
Travel through the four journeys that eventually brought our grandparents together.
Explore our heritage ↗Meet relatives whose lives have begun to emerge from photographs, clippings, and family memories.
Meet the ancestors ↗Discover the decisions, hardships, surprising moments, and ordinary joys passed down through our family.
Read family stories ↗