About this Site
My name is Deana Hipke. I grew up near Peshtigo, Wisconsin
and attended the public schools there. I graduated from the University
of Wisconsin and currently live in the capital city of Madison
with my husband and daughter.
I am not a professional
historian. This site was inspired by my
personal interest in genealogy and local history, and grew out
of a compulsion to collect published
references to my hometown and its unfortunate claim to fame.
When I first started visiting
genealogy sites on the Internet, I occasionally came across queries
posted by individuals looking for information about "a big
forest fire in Wisconsin that killed a lot of people." I
was glad to use my background knowledge to answer a few questions. In time, I decided to
compile some information and make it available via the Internet. This
was my first exercise in Web site publishing.
The site started out (in late
1998) as little more than a list of
books, articles and links intended simply to steer
people toward the source materials they needed to do their own
research and develop their own conclusions. It soon became
more popular than I had imagined. It was gratifying to learn that my little hobby site
had relevance in the wider
world, and the positive feedback provided encouragement for me to
expand and
improve it. I have therefore invested considerable time and
effort in giving the site a more professional look, expanding the
content and promoting it in various forums.
I have also incurred some expenses to register a domain name and secure
functional and reliable web hosting services. Thanks to heavy
competition in the business, I have managed to find some good deals that promise to keep these yearly expenses
fairly low, but it's still money out of my pocket. If you think
this site is a worthwhile endeavor and you would like to
contribute a little something to help keep it going, feel free to
contact
me. I'll be happy to provide a breakdown of expenses. All
patrons will be acknowledged here on the site, unless they wish
to remain anonymous.
~ dch
