Yani Wood
I am the owner of Lucky Pet Petsitting LLC, located in Seattle, WA. When I’m not running my business, you can find me neck deep in my genealogy research. Genealogy has always been an interest of mine, but in 2015 when I had my first DNA test done, it became an obsession! I have other interests, such as photography and art, but genealogy has really taken over, and boy has it been worth it!
When I was young my family consisted of me, my mom, my step great grandmother, my uncle, his wife and my cousin — 6 people. My father, 2 half brothers, and my father’s family all lived in a different country, and I didn’t get to meet them until I was almost 16 years old. As you can imagine, I longed for that family experience where cousins grew up together, and everyone was close. It wasn’t until I started doing genealogy that I learned there was actually many cousins in our area, we just didn’t know of them.
Since doing genealogy my family size has exploded! I now have relationships with family members all around the globe. A large part of my friends list on FB is made up of family members I didn’t know existed 5 years ago, and some of us have become close. If not for the pandemic and sheltering at home, I would be traveling this summer to meet some of my closer cousins in person. That will still happen, just not this year, and I can’t wait!
By the way, all the photos on this website are of my family!
“I tried making a tree a while ago. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.” — a friend
My Skills
I am NOT a professional genealogist, but I’m pretty darn good at it, and I focus on accuracy.
In my own family tree I’ve discovered that I am descended from the Acadians, France’s version of first settlers in Canada’s Maritime provinces. I’m also descended from at least two Filles du Roi, daughters of the King, women sponsored by the King of France to relocate to Quebec, marry settlers, and to populate the new colony. These are histories my family had no idea about, and I didn’t learn until I started working with my DNA matches. I’ve also been able to break through a brick wall, which revealed a name change from a survivor of the 1704 Deerfield Massacre in Massachusetts.
I cannot promise these kinds of breakthroughs from just 5 hours, but even starting off is exciting. If you’re happy with the results and want to go further, we can negotiate that.
I use many tools and am subscribed with Ancestry(.com) at the highest level, as well as Newspaper(.com), MyHeritage, FamilySearch, and others. I have DNA accounts with Ancestry(.com), 23andMe, MyHeritage, ftDNA and GEDmatch.