Martin Fischer Genealogy and Editing Services

Martin Fischer

Are you curious to know more about your family history but are too busy to research it yourself? Would you like to discover relatives you don't even know exist? Is there an intriguing family history story you would like to have checked out but don't quite know how to pursue it? Are you looking for an unusual gift for a friend or relative who has everything? Is there a part of your family that you have lost contact with over the years, perhaps due to a long-ago rift or disagreement, and you now would like to mend fences or just re-establish contact? If any of these are the case, then let Martin Fischer help you.

Martin Fischer worked for more than 30 years as a journalist at the Chicago Tribune. Now, he is using his experience as a longtime enthusiastic amateur genealogist in his new career as a part-time professional freelance genealogist, researcher, editor, and writer. He is available to conduct family history projects including but not limited to searching online databases; corresponding with government archives of birth, marriage and death records; building family trees; editing memoirs; and writing family history narratives.

 He has been conducting family history research in his free time since the 1970s. His genealogical areas of specialization include but are not limited to the St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., and Chicago and Cook County, Ill., areas; the Midwestern U.S.; emigration and immigration; finding heirs and other relatives; federal records and naturalization; the Holocaust and other Jewish topics.

Martin Fischer is a tech savvy baby boomer with experience using Family Tree Maker genealogical software as well as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher and FrontPage; and Adobe InCopy.

As a long-time copy editor at the Chicago Tribune, he became known as a defender of correct grammar, punctuation and spelling and an advocate of accuracy, clarity and readability. He applies the same diligence to genealogical projects and freelance editing.

For much of his career, he edited local news stories on the metro copy desk, but also had experience editing national/foreign and business news copy. The job required writing informative headlines and interesting photo captions and respectfully trimming stories to fit space needs. He is experienced with both print and online publication. Early in 2012, he worked temporarily as a copy editor for the American Medical Association.

Previously, as a graphics coordinator in the Tribune's editorial art department, Martin Fischer reported, researched and wrote text for informational newspaper graphics on a wide range of subject matter -- some of it technical, medical or scientific -- for the Tribune's metro, national/foreign, business, sports and features sections.

Earlier in his career, he was responsible for generating story ideas and assigning stories to other reporters for a weekly community newspaper in Chicago, where he also wrote and copy edited news and feature articles and editorials.  He also wrote two copy preparation guides for the newspaper's reporting staff.

Although his professional life has been in newspaper journalism, his master's degree from the University of Chicago is in sociology and his bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis is in political science.

Martin Fischer is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors, the St. Louis Genealogical Society, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois, the American Copy Editors Society and the Editorial Freelancers Association. He is vice president-publicity of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois. He attended the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, Aug. 17-22, 2008, in Chicago; the Professional Management Conference of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Sept. 2, 2009, in Little Rock, Ark.; the Midwest Jewish Genealogical Conference, June 6, 2010, in Skokie, Ill.; the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, Aug. 14-18, 2011, in Washington, D.C.; and the Federation of Genealogical Societies 35th Annual Conference, Sept. 7-10, 2011, in Springfield, Ill.

He has the talent, skills and temperament to successfully edit book-length manuscripts as well as shorter forms of publication, such as magazine, newspaper and scholarly journal articles, brochures, press releases, advertising copy and Web sites. He is accustomed to a fast-paced environment where deadlines are a priority and handling multiple jobs with excellent attention to detail and accuracy are required.

To see examples of Martin Fischer's genealogical research and writing, click the Home button below. To hire him to work for you on a family history or other project, please contact him by clicking here. To read Martin's professional career resume, click here.