Jeanne Larzalere Bloom

Jeanne Larzalere Bloom, Certified Genealogist(SM), is a full-time professional researcher specializing in problem solving and compiling multi-generational family histories. Clients include heir-search firms, authors, professional genealogists, and family researchers in the United States and internationally. As a former trained and certified Confidential Intermediary for the State of Illinois, Ms. Bloom was court appointed to locate sought-after relatives for adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents and other birth relatives. She is a published author and lectures frequently. A case manager, she works for the Repatriation and Family Affairs Division of the Army Casualty and Memorial Affairs Operation on identifying family members to aid in the possible identification of unaccounted for soldiers from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Articles by this author

• Adoption Research: The Agony of the Search; the Thrill of Success

"This packrat has learned that what the next generation will value most is not what we owned, but the evidence of who we were and the tales of how we loved. In the end, it's the family stories that are worth the storage. "—Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe

My specific genealogical interest is the United States, especially Chicago and Cook County, Illinois.

I think that it began when I was a child. I would beg my grandmother to tell me stories about her childhood. I loved to read biographies. I was particularly fond of "The Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

There have been so many surprising genealogical finds that it is hard to pick the "most" surprising. For my family research it was the discovery that my great-great-grandfather's brother lived in Texas and enlisted in the Confederate Army. This family had lived above the Mason-Dixon line since the late 1600s and my ancestor was an officer in the Union Army.

I am not drawn to the family histories of historical greats. My passion is the extraordinary stories of "ordinary" people.