It started back in 2010

Have you ever wondered what started the GSP Ancestry project? I think about it from time to time myself. I never could have imagined it would become the huge project that it has become today.

I love family tree research and have done extensive work to my family tree and my husband's too. Then, when I was an Arabian horse breeder, I researched the Egyptian bloodlines and had a database (still have, no longer use it) that was known all over the world. When I sold my research books, volumes and volumes of them, they went to South Africa to another person that loved the research. Due to a significant surgery, I had to let go of my beloved horses.... and I was without horses or dogs for a while.

Then, on a whim, I went with a young friend to South Carolina to someone she knew that had some GSP puppies. She wanted one, and I was curious. I came home with Rose.... knowing nothing about the breed, their needs, their intense love of the hunt.... nothing. But she was beautiful! Wasn't that enough?

Rose was a sweet pup but quirky from the start. She went to work with me every day as I worked for my veterinarian and grew up around lots of dogs and people. She was a sweet dog and had a strong curious intent to her personality. She investigated everything it seemed, even to the point of protecting me from a watermelon one day. She wanted nothing to do with that odd green thing and she barked at it intensely, just to be sure it knew who was in charge.

One day, a man brought in a GWP to the clinic. Cowboy was kinda scruffy looking to me, but he sure was interesting. We had a pigeon in a big cage just inside the treatment room and, when Cowboy came in and saw it, he turned and pointed the bird. I was impressed that the vet did his entire exam right there, drew blood, everything and the dog just stared at the pigeon. I found out later that Cowboy was a German Wirehaired Pointer and he was trained to point birds. I had never seen a pointer before and, knowing that Rose was supposed to be a pointer, I wanted to know more.

Next thing that happened... I got permission to speak with the owner, a nice gentleman named Earl Fowls about his dog (completely unrelated to the veterinary work, and I introduced myself, telling him I had a pointer dog too. Could he make my dog do what his dog did? He said... bring her over and let's see... 

That day began my education into bird dogs, and I knew that I had to learn all I could. After all, I was already 60 years old myself. I loved watching the training, seeing my pretty Rose flourish as a hunter, and I practically lived to see her work. She lived to go play with Earl!

I think she actually knew how to get to his home because once we got within a couple of miles she would get all excited and was nearly driving my truck by the time we got to his place!

While learning to help Earl as he trained Rose, my love of researching family lines took over and I began researching her pedigree. Though I could have just purchased extended pedigrees from AKC, I needed to be able to compile the information in a usable format. As often happens, one thing led to another, and I purchased the Breeders Assistant Program for dogs. By now I had a couple more German Shorthaired Pointers, so I added their pedigrees as well. The project continued to grow as I began to search out pedigrees on the internet. The project was growing but was just a personal project at this stage.

It did not take very long for me to find out that there were multiple pedigree sites where one could look up pedigrees. But, most of them were missing something… or missing everything except the name of the dogs. I decided right then that I would not use information from any of those online sources. I could not trust that it was correct. I remain true to the goal of only using verifiable pedigrees today.

As the project grew and became something that others may find useful, the project became public as GSP Ancestry. A website was created, and the project was online, just like my Arabian horse pedigree database once was.

So, that's how the GSP Ancestry project began. As people learned about it, they began to share pedigrees and information with me, and I have several thousand AKC Certified and AKC Research pedigrees in my possession now. All those dogs have been entered into the database. 

I even have had donated twelve boxes full of old American Field Magazines that hold many more pedigrees! I am still in the process of adding all those old pedigrees. AKC Studbooks were found and purchased, and the dogs in them filled out even more pedigrees. To this day, I have never gone back to an online database to gather information for the GSP Ancestry project.

I have learned so much through sitting here typing, through watching dog trainers I know work, through the pedigrees themselves, through the dogs I have owned and still have. How can I know enough to be considered knowledgeable enough for old, experienced breeders to trust me with their pedigrees? I can only assure you that I am fully committed to the dogs, what they were bred to do, what they love, and to the breed. Otherwise why would I sit and work nearly every day on some part of the project? The ultimate goal is 100,000 dogs in the database_, all properly verified and traceable.

GSP Ancestry has reached and surpassed the original goal and it continues to grow. Thank you for being a part of the project by sharing your dogs and your pedigrees.