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About Footlight Research's Beginnings

     I started Footlight Research to follow my passion for discovering information and connections, researching historical trends and events, and for telling those stories about who we are, where we live, and how we each came to be.

Why "Footlight" research?

     Footlight ties together my role as a historian and a storyteller with my love of movie theaters.

I am by nature a storyteller and a researcher. I have made a life of listening to people and understanding how everyone's stories explain their identity. I will walk through a place and feel that story, and then dig into the historical context that surrounds that feeling. I deeply explore the details for answers to the why or what of the context. I find the background of a place or culture or name and bring that insight to the place and people's story. I provide words to your projects and the history of a place, family, business, neighborhood, and theme.

     A footlight puts the focus on a stage, drawing the attention to those actions important at that moment. Although often beautifully designed, they always remained secondary to the story told onstage. In my work for you, I focus on your information needs, carefully sorting the research that will capture accurately the story you want told.

About Anne M. Drolet

I have a Ph.D. in American literature and an Arch M.S. in heritage conservation and preservation. These degrees have opened many outlets. During my 30+ year career, I've been a university professor, a local and family history librarian, a newspaper human-interest columnist, a magazine book review editor, and a multicultural storyteller. I also am a historical fiction and memoir author, a magazine historian, a genealogist, and an architectural historian. I bring all this accumulated experience and these interests to my clients' projects.

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I've lived much of my life in Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota, but I also have lived in Pennsylvania, Upstate New York and Vermont. When I'm not working on uncovering histories and telling stories, I am spending time with my two sons, two step-daughters, and their families.  

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