Anne Sturm

Biography

Anne Sturm

Anne Sturm (born October 9, 1981, in Albany, New York) is an American genealogical researcher and creator of Our Ancestral Tree, an independent family-history and historical research project. Her work focuses on reconstructing family relationships through documentary research, archival records, DNA evidence, and the comparison of conflicting genealogical sources.

A lifelong resident of the Albany area, Sturm developed a strong interest in genealogy and historical research, eventually undertaking extensive investigations into branches of her family extending through New York, New Jersey, New England, Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Canada. Her research has included probate records, wills, church registers, census schedules, cemetery records, land records, historical genealogies, and genetic genealogy.

One of her principal research projects has involved the Griner and Garrison families of southern New Jersey. Through the reconstruction of several generations of the family, she has investigated the line connecting Eli Griner and Rachel Loder with earlier Griner, Garrison, Walling, Elwell, and Bassett families. Her research has required distinguishing individuals with similar names and resolving contradictions found in published genealogies and online family trees.

Sturm is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) through her Loder ancestry and has continued researching additional ancestral lines for potential supplemental applications. Her broader New England research has also led her to investigate connections with seventeenth-century colonial families.

She created Our Ancestral Tree as a digital home for this research. The project combines traditional family-tree information with biographies, historical records, source documentation, encyclopedia articles, timelines, and material placing individual lives within their historical context.

For Sturm, genealogy is ultimately an investigative process. She has jokingly summarized her approach to the field with a particularly appropriate job description:

“I hunt down dead people.”