Terra Costin grew up listening to interesting stories about her family history from various family members, and always wondered which were true and which were embellished. Did her great-grandmother really run away with the circus in the 1930s, never to be seen or heard from again? Was her great-great-grandfather really the founder of Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho)? Did her ancestors really own a farm that provided potatoes to the Lays potato chip company? And more importantly, she always wondered where her ancestors came from and what circumstances originally brought them to the United States and ultimately to the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado?
When she was at Brigham Young University majoring in History, Terra took a Family History class and started researching all her family lines—and got completely hooked. She discovered that learning more about her ancestors gave her a greater feeling of connection to the world as a whole. She ended up changing her major and graduated with a BA in Family History/Genealogy in April 2006.
Terra began working with Legacy Tree as a researcher shortly after graduation, and quickly learned that she is just as passionate about learning about other people’s family history as she is about her own. She loves helping people discover their roots and find that deeper connection with how they and their ancestors fit into history, and what events and circumstances helped mold them into the people they are today. In the many years she’s been at Legacy Tree Terra has worked in various roles and has been involved with thousands of projects from all time periods and geographic locations around the world. She loves continuing to learn new things and helping others do the same.
When she’s not working Terra loves reading, mountain biking, hiking, and exploring the world with her husband and 4 kids.
We’d love to help you with your family history, whether we’re breaking down brick wall mysteries, finding your biological parents, or just starting from scratch finding the stories about your ancestors. Contact us today for a free consultation.
Hey, I’m looking for someone to copy a few pages of 4 books that are held by the Family Search library. Apparently, they don’t undertake that kind of assistance anymore, not even for a fee. I’m working on a book about the famous trapper Thomas “Pegleg” Smith (whose family tree is completely inaccurate in the Family Search data, but that’s another story). I’ve located 4 books that mention Pegleg Smith and just need to get pages scanned and emailed to me. Obviously, that doesn’t require a genealogist but was wondering if you knew anyone, even a high school kid, willing to do that kind of work. I will pay $25 an hour.
Hi Steve!
This is a common question we get and we are learning more about people in this industry! The one that comes to mind right off the top of my head is https://www.vivid-pix.com/. They were at RootsTech and have such a great service for scanning in documents and using them to create new books or memories. I hope that helps!