After Alice received her teaching degree at Bradley University, she began her career at St. Boniface Grade School in 1971 and moved on to the Peoria Public Schools two years later. Through the years she taught Literature, English, Speech, Debate, and Art, primarily to junior high students. By the mid-1990s, she knew that computers and the software available would be beneficial to students. Soon she was teaching teachers how to incorporate this tool in their classrooms. The last few years of her career in education was spent as the Technology Staff Developer. She retired from District 150 in 2005.
A few years prior to retirement, she found a picture labeled “The Seven Sisters” which inspired her to search for ancestors. Growing up in a large Irish Catholic family in Peoria, it seemed that EVERYONE was a cousin. Recent DNA results have shown that to be true! We have numerous “shirt-tail cousins” in this city.
On one of her trips to the library after retiring, she discovered a brochure for PCGS, became a member, and volunteered to create some of the databases for publications you’ll find on the library shelves today. The last few years have been spent transcribing the undertaker books that spanned 1872-1915. In 2018 Alice inherited Prairie Roots. She’s always looking for great member stories to use.
Please contact Alice at pcgsprairieroots@gmail.com