About me  

My interest in genealogy goes back many years and has accompanied me since my youth. I am deeply interested in life stories and their historical context, as it is this context that makes individual lives meaningful and understandable.

For a long time, I have worked with material that is initially fragmentary: names, documents, photographs, memories and places. What interests me is how a clear structure can emerge from these fragments and what becomes visible when one looks more closely. For me, genealogy is not about collecting data, but about understanding lives within their historical and geographical framework.

My professional background is in media design. I do not see design as a surface, but as a tool: to create order, to make content readable and to keep complex relationships accessible. Alongside this, I have increasingly focused on family history and historical contextualization.

I completed a ZFU-approved distance learning program in professional genealogy, which provided me with a solid methodological foundation. This includes independent genealogical research, working with governmental, church and private sources, reading historical scripts, and the structured presentation of family relationships.

As part of this program, I successfully completed the module “Historic Background Knowledge”. This qualification enables me to place individual lives and family histories within a broader historical context, covering key periods from the Renaissance to German reunification.

In my work, I combine research, historical context and design with a strong commitment to clarity, care and a respectful approach to the biographies I work with.

An important part of my life is also my voluntary work. I serve on the board of the ILCO regional association of North Rhine-Westphalia, supporting people for whom illness and disruptions in their life course require a renewed engagement with their own biography. Listening, contextualization and structure play a key role here as well. These experiences shape my professional attitude and working methods.

On this website, I share selected texts, research and reflections that illustrate how I work – and how narrative and coherent connections can emerge from fragmented material.



>> View certificate (PDF)
(Certificate covers the module “Historic background knowledge”.)