Greetings! My name is Christine. I am the administrator of three groups on Flickr. I am a single mother with two grown adult children – a daughter and a son. I am doing research to prepare a book on the history of my family. And if I have tagged you as a 'friend,' or 'contact' it may be because at some point, I will need to consult you to obtain permission to use some of your photography which I hope you would be gracious enough to allow me to use or point me in the right direction to find images of Saints, Blessed, Martyred and Venerated individuals as well as important historical figures in my family. I will of course give you proper credit for your work. Anyone willing to help me find or contribute to these is welcome! I shall post a list of the Saints and people I am looking for somewhere in my profile later on (Please be patient, I hope to post a list soon!) – with a mention next to each as they are found.

Should you allow me to use your photos, please know that I cannot afford to buy all the images I need and would propose to set up a list in my book where people can donate an amount to your favourite charities (in a special group of pages in the back of my book to which I shall point my readers to) to thank you for your contributions. Contributors will get my real last name so they know who received these images. I am cautious in terms of identity theft and this is the reason I keep my last name confidential on the Internet and use 'Snowbird' instead. I still have years of work left to do to track down the multitude of images required and 'fine tune' my book. I hope to publish a genealogy of these Saints as well as a book on the history of my family (one private version for my close kin and another public version to share with the world).

My experience as an independent researcher at the National Archives of Canada was a tremendous asset to conduct this work which I must say at times was like becoming the ‘Sherlock Holmes’ of genealogy. History and genealogy are among my passions and one of the best stress relievers one can have in today's dehumanized technological world. My work has been going on for nearly 30 years now and my family bloodlines have been traced to beyond 3,000 years before Christ. (no joke). Our family had been lost in the dust piles of the oblivion of history for a few hundred years when ancestors crossed the Atlantic to settle here. In 1998 and 2001 two publications proved the lineage of these ancestor who came to Canada and to whom my relationship is proven and I now possess a Certificate of Authentification of a Bloodline duly verified by professionals in the field who have their credentials from Europe. I reserve a lot of surprises for lovers of history in the future. I fortunately enough to be fluent in French and in English and have some Latin under my belt and in the course of this work I was able to establish the concordance of a tremendous amount of research which I put into a database to be able to manage it all and pursue the work without getting lost as it became more and more difficult to handle for the sheer volume of it all. My lines can be traced to the Emperors of Byzantine at Nicaea; the Grand-Princes of Kiev and Novgorod; the Kings of Judea and Israel; the Pharaohs of Egypt; the Kings, Queens and other nobles of almost every country in Europe, the Middle and Far-East; the Holy Roman Empire; the Shahs of Persia; many ancient clans, peoples and tribes - and so forth. . . These ancestors come from a wide array of faiths, religions, creeds and this work had taught me to look upon mankind as one tremendously beautiful and big family of God and all the more reason for me to believe in the need for love and tolerance amongst nations - because, yes, even in my own bloodlines, I have found we are all inter-related somehow it is true and we are all the children of God each and every one of us. My work has unravelled some important information which could shed light on a few medical conditions in certain populations as well and I hope that this shall someday help many.

This work is done in memory of my mother – who, as a young teenager …as she tried to impart some verbal heritage to me, I so failed to listen and ridiculed while she was living in moments when she tried to tell me about our noble and royal lineage and much of this verbal heritage is now lost unfortunately. It was only six months after she left this mortal world after a valiant battle against ovarian cancer, that I discovered that she had been telling the truth all along and although I cannot take back the fun I made of her while I was younger, my work shall be a legacy I shall leave in her memory. . . This history is one which is worthy to share as many things transpire from it which I feel can benefit peace among people who have no idea to this day how their histories are linked and how in effect they unknowingly fight against their own brethren. Some noble and royal lines produced many descendants and many of the ‘common people’ do not realize that they too share this heritage.

One thing which transpired as well is that some previously believed to be ‘rare’ medical conditions are now on the rise in populations – this is evident in demographic ‘pockets’ where descendants of these settlers migrated in certain parts of North America and my work shall help to shed light upon this as to why this is happening. Ultimately, doctors will have to keep some of this in mind as these can cause quite devastating consequences for people and to be aware of what to look for can help better diagnose such conditions more rapidly and ultimately alleviate much human suffering before it is too late and even perhaps save lives. The underlying causes of certain symptoms may not be what some may think and to be set on the wrong course and the wrong treatment can actually make some situations worse if the diagnosis is not done properly. This work will shed light on the ignorance of these problems and sound a bell for many I hope. As people read my work and find they are somewhere related to these lines – to our family - they will be able to exercise caution further for themselves and their loved ones.

I hope God will give me the years needed to finish this work. I was born with a heart defect and in recent times have discovered that I have an enlargement of a chamber of the heart and hope God willing I shall not meet my end before this work is done. . . Events in my life which cause me tremendous pain and stress at the moment are not helping any and I hope I can be spared these from continuing much longer so I can concentrate on this work and live a happier life to be able to pursue this goal – this dream of completing this work. I have funded this work entirely on my own for the entire duration and if good fortune was set upon me, believe me I would accelerate the work by hiring people to help me as a team but this is not in the stars for me at the moment.

If I have erred somewhere, I welcome your input! Oft, several dates or locations will be given – and, this is because experts in their respective fields cannot agree upon them for a variety of reasons and this is not an error on my part. I shall explain this in my book as this is too complex to discuss here.

I welcome your input as a 'newbie' on this site and if you have ‘pointers’ and shortcuts to teach me, great groups to look into, or how to form a group of my own to work on this project, by all means let me know!

Warm regards to all and peace on earth to mankind!

Christine