James Tanner

Mr. Tanner served an LDS mission in Argentina, graduated in Spanish and Linguistics at the University of Utah, served in the U.S. Army as an Intelligence Analyst in Panama, and later graduated from the Arizona State University Law School. In addition to practicing law, he owned a computer retail business, a software development company, and a graphics design company. He is presently a partner in an Arizona law firm.

Having done genealogical research for more than twenty-five years, it now consumes most of his time outside the practice of law. He serves as a volunteer at the Mesa Arizona Regional Family History Center and is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Mr. Tanner's language and computer skills are a great asset to his research and teaching.

He is married, has seven children and 25 grandchildren.

Articles by this author

• Advancing Your Genealogical Research Into The Digital Age

None

I would characterize my interests as being in research and research tools, particularly online resources. I really don't have a particular geographic area of interest although I have done very in depth research in the New England States and in the Western US. I have research every place from Australia, South Africa, the Philippines, South America and Central America and lots of places in Europe. In the past couple of weeks I have addressed issues in Poland, Florida, Ohio, Sweden and many other places.

I started to verify my four generations as an assignment from the LDS Church and found errors in the first four generations. I had always been led to believe all the research had been done, but I realized that it hadn't all been "done" and got working on my family research. That was almost thirty years ago.

My family goes back to the Mayflower and my most surprising finding was that very few of the Mayflower families can be traced back to their parents in England.

Honestly, I am not in the least interested in doing research on historical figures. I believe that the history of anyone's family is just as interesting and challenging as someone famous.