On 1 July 2026, I graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a PhD in History with Genealogical Studies. My thesis, Who Counts as an Ancestor? Technological Advancement, Documentary Evidence, and Changing Genealogical Standards in American Lineage Societies, 1970 – 2020, is finished, deposited, and (a fact I am still adjusting to) no longer something I am doing. It is something I did. I have written a great deal about other people's lives. It feels strange to turn the