Dan has been actively involved in the pursuit of genealogy and his family tree since 1987. Prior to that, he "convinced" his dad to do some of the initial legwork, all of which was done on large paper worksheets. Dan has since converted those initial efforts to computer. Dan's paternal line has been traced as far back as 1530 in Bretten, Baden, Germany. His immigrant ancestor came to America in 1732 and built his final home in Quincy, PA in 1747. Dan and his wife toured that home in 2003. His wife also has an active interest in genealogy, spending numerous annual genealogy vacations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana with Dan.

Dan has been an avid user of the software program, Family Tree Maker, since the "DOS" days. His passion is learning to leverage new software tools and guiding others to do the same. He has attended numerous local workshops over the past years. Dan holds memberships in the Northwest Suburban Council of Genealogists (NWSCG) (as past President and Vice President/ Membership Chair), the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group of Northern Illinois (CAGG-NI) (as past Vice President/Program Chair), the Lake County (IL) Genealogical Society, and the Illinois State Genealogical Society, the Ohio Genealogical Society and the German Interest Group - Wisconsin.