Cathy Ivins has been researching her family history since 2005, creating a family tree album as a birthday gift to her great-grandmother. The release of the 1940 U.S. Census was a catalyst to her passion for genealogy. She has since traced her own family history back to the 1900s in the coal mines of Western PA and to the 1800s in the city of New York, as well as the 1700s in Italy, Poland, and Ireland.

Joining the Bucks County Genealogical Society as a Charter Member in 2012 and becoming their Director of Publicity  has further enhanced her devotion and education in the field of genealogy. Cathy has attended countless lectures, webinars, and classes including Practical Genetic Genealogy at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh in 2015, with instructors Blaine Bettinger, CeCe Moore, and Debbie Parker Wayne. She also completed the Fundamentals of Forensic Genealogy Class at GRIP in 2016 with instructors Michael Ramage, Kelvin Meyers, and Catherine Desmarais.

In 2021, Cathy solved her husband’s non-paternity event using genetic genealogy and many tools and third-party sites. An article on her success was featured in the Fall 2021 Bucks County Herald (pages 34/35): “Together At Last“.

Cathy has now passed on her passions, knowledge and experience to others through lectures at various genealogy societies, as well as answers to queries through Bucksgen’s social media sites, email and social gatherings. To continue helping others, she has started this blog and Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ivinsgen. Cathy is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, and can be contacted directly at ivinsgen@gmail.com.

She hopes to help connect others with their family history, and embraces her mantra of “Family is a gift that lasts forever”.