Heirlooms Research was founded in February 2020 and relaunched in the summer of 2024 after the pandemic shifted the pace and direction of the work. The business grew out of more than thirty years of family history research, beginning in 1993 with a personal search to better understand one family’s story.
That early search grew into a long-standing commitment to documenting families with care, context, and respect. Over the years, the work has included tracing direct ancestors, studying community history, analyzing historical records, working with DNA matches, helping relatives understand family connections and using evidence to answer long-standing questions.
A defining part of this work was the search for the identity of my maternal grandfather’s father. That experience deepened my understanding of how family history research can restore names, relationships, and stories that may have been hidden, misremembered or left unresolved for generations.
My background in social science, with a concentration in gerontology, also shapes the approach behind Heirlooms Research. The study of aging, families, memory and lived experience reinforces the importance of preserving stories while people are still here to tell them.
At its heart, Heirlooms Research helps families move from scattered information to meaningful understanding.
Lenora Robinson
Founder, Heirlooms Research