About Us

Our Founders

Taieno

Cook

"Like most Americans, I have ancestors who hail from many countries and regions; but I began my genealogy journey on my Polish lines. I quickly learned that I needed document proficiency in German, Russian, Polish, and Latin just to research one family, let alone the Hungarian, Danish, Swedish, Old English, and so on for my other lines!

"Learning the essentials of these languages was difficult. There were no tools that brought all the aspects of a language that I needed to master together in one place. We built DecipherInk to give other people the simple, bite-sized, and easy-to-practice learning tool I wish I'd had."

Charlotte

Champenois, AG®, AGL™

"I’ve been fascinated by handwriting and languages all my life. Originally from Denmark, I learned English as a child when my family moved to the U.S. Exploring multiple languages, speaking Danish and English daily for 20+ years, and having family members who know Spanish, Japanese, German, Russian, and French, I’ve always been surrounded by languages.

"I merged my love of languages with genealogy in my education and work and regularly help people with records in other languages, especially ones written in the old German script.

"With so many resources to help learn to decipher records, I found one thing missing: A self-paced genealogical language learning app. So, we created something engaging, interactive, and easily accessible—targeting what a genealogist needs to know of a language and script to Decipher Ink."

Camille

Andrus, AG®

"History was always one of my favorite subjects in school (followed closely by band and Spanish). As a high schooler I thumbed through a college catalog and saw that paleography classes were offered by the History department. Upon further investigation I learned that one could study German genealogy. In college, I finally had an opportunity to learn German (something I had wanted to do since 7th grade)! Later, I was fortunate to study Armenian and Russian.

"My language experience covers a range of alphabets and scripts, and I understand intimately how hard it is to set out to learn something so different from your native language. I hope to lower the language learning barrier for genealogists for all levels, for as many languages as possible."

Our Expertise

We (Camille, Charlotte, and Taieno) all hold a Bachelor's degree in Family History—Genealogy from Brigham Young University, the only university to offer such a degree. Camille holds a Graduate Certificate in Germans from Russia Studies from Northern State University and has attended five Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) courses, and Charlotte is currently working toward a Master's in Genealogical, Palaeographic & Heraldic Studies from the University of Strathclyde.

Collectively, we have or have held Accredited Genealogist® (AG®) credentials through the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists™ (ICAPGen™) in the regions of Germany, Germany Northwest, Germany East, Austria, Poland, Czechia, Denmark, and Sweden, and we have extensive language experience with German, Danish, Armenian, Spanish, Polish, and Russian. Charlotte is also an Accredited Genealogist Lecturer™ (AGL™).

We have developed institutional genealogical language training and presented at a variety of conferences:

RootsTech
FamilySearch Library (formerly Family History Library) (classes & webinars)
International German Genealogy Partnership Conference (IGGC)
Foundation for East European Family History Studies (FEEFHS)
American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR Convention)
National Genealogical Society (NGS)
Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS)
Sacramento German Genealogy Society (SGGS)
San Diego Genealogical Society German Interest Group (SDGS GIG)
Southern California Genealogical Society Genealogy Jamboree (SCGS Jamboree)
National Danish American Genealogical Society (NDAGS)

Camille has served as the 2nd Vice President of the AHSGR Intermountain Chapter and a member of the FEEFHS Board. Camille and Charlotte have both served on the ICAPGen™ Board of Commissioners and collaborated with Dr. Roger P. Minert on several volumes of the ongoing German Immigrants in American Church Records series. Charlotte also co-authored Austrian Family History Research: Sources and Methodologies with Dr. Minert.

We've been involved in the genealogical industry in many capacities, helping hundreds of people further their own genealogy using our specialized language and research expertise.

We've poured our love of languages and genealogical expertise into DecipherInk, which is crafted to empower you to learn to read your family's genealogical records yourself!

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