Dirt from Our Roots is truly a family genealogy effort. Starting with my parents, Ruth and Gerald Dilley, we have been on a mission for 60 years to uncover as much family history and as many family stories as possible.
Today, the reins have been taken up by me, Janet Meydam, and my daughter Calysta Phalen Burke. We hope to preserve and share the stories from our family trees, not only with our family members but with anyone who likes to read tales from the past. And if we can pass along a few tips and research tricks to other aspiring genealogists, that’d be wonderful too!
We would like to dedicate this site to the people who made it all possible by “digging up” all the family stories in the first place – our parents and grandparents:
Gerald and Ruth (Hanson) Dilley
Helen Reinecke Meydam
A little bit more about us…
Janet (Dilley) Meydam has been an amateur genealogist for over 40 years. She has completed or assisted with research on all three of the family trees presented on this website. Janet is a freelance writer and has written articles about genealogy for Family History Daily as well as other publications. She also works as an occupational therapist. Janet is married to her husband Tim who happily puts up with the genealogy hobby because he enjoys the history and travel behind it all. Janet and Tim have three adult children and make their home in Wittenberg, Wisconsin.
Calysta Phalen Burke has been an amateur genealogist for 10 years, following in the footsteps of her mother and her grandparents. Her favorite part of genealogy is researching the “difficult” family members and finding those lost puzzle pieces. By day, Calysta specializes in marketing and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, daughter, and dog. Together, they love nature, traveling, playing music, and eating good food.