Doing genealogy is a life-time pursuit and can at times be very difficult; especially where adoptions are involved and little information is available about birth parents. Breaking through those barriers can be illuminating, especially when they lead to learning more about your ancestors and their origins than a DNA test can provide. Vincent Michael's genealogy is one of those that is extremely challenging but well worth the effort. Beginning in Jacksonville, Illinois where his family has lived for generations, it travels back through time to Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, France and Switzerland. While the majority of the names are unfamiliar to historians and represent the hard working people who built the American nation, other names such as Henry 1, King of England, Charlemagne, Martel and Baldwin, the Count of Flanders are very familiar. For those familiar with Templar Knights research, there are also several Knights Templars sprinkled throughout the lineage in the de Montfort, Montdidier and Flanders lines. His ancestors came to the Americas as early as 1600, some as indentured servants, others as part of the aristocracy searching for new opportunities. They served in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and both World War 1 and 2. One of his ancestral families was the Goines family, descended from the first Negro freeman in America. Another stepped off of the Mayflower, and another was a Moravian soldier who stayed behind after the Revolutionary War. Regardless of where they came from, they were uniquely American in that they worked hard to establish their families and businesses and soon became an important part of the national fabric. While there are more than 100 generations represented here, extending back to Biblical times through Anna of Arimathea and the Kings of Ireland, there are still endless opportunities for original research. I hope that this give future researchers a blueprint to continue their own research.