I’ve been interested in history
since I was a kid rooting through old attics in search of “good old stuff” As a
10 year old on a Family cross country trip my most memorable times were at the
cliff dwelling of the Mesa Verde and the several museums we stopped at.
Disneyland though enjoyable could not compete.I got interested in genealogy in 1988 while talking with my father who was terminally ill. He revealed that I had cousins in Chicopee. This was news to me. I always thought we were the only Crossley’s around. I started researching the family and he encouraged me. It also gave us something to talk about.
I started Broad View Books in 1993 to combine my interest in genealogy with my love of books. I bought some genealogy books and sold them at community events. I threw in some used books and sold a few here and there. In 1996 my son Evan was born 2 months early. I put the book business on hold. I decided not to go back to work but instead stay home and take care of my son Evan. He was very demanding for the first few year of his life. In September 1997 I started working on the web site during his nap times. By October I was ready to officially launch my web site with my own domain name. I waited for waves of people to come to my site and buy lots of books. Well they must have been someplace else because not to many people came. In December of that year I started advertising on the genealogy mailing lists and answering questions on some of the New England mailing lists. Orders started pouring in and five years later I’m shipping books all over the world.