Traci was born in California, although she is for all intents and purposes a Pittsburgh native (she also lived for a time in a suburb on Cleveland's West Side). She attended her first reenactment, a French and Indian War skirmish at Fort Ligoniere, in 1996. Following a visit to another French and Indian War skirmish at Point State Park in Pittsburgh, she decidedd to get us involved with a reenacting unit, and she can truly take the credit for getting us in to the hobby in 1998. Her penchant for antiques and her ability to sew lend to her fascination with the Civil War era.

I was born in Canandaigua, New York and lived in Mendon and Honeoye until my move to Pennsylvania in 1996. I attended my first reenactment in 1979 at Keuka Park (we owned two cottages on Keuka Lake's west shore), and I joined a small Confederate unit after watching the reenactment at Genesee Country Museum in 1984. As my loyalties were always with the North and my unit seldom attended events, I left the hobby after two years, although I continued to volunteer at the Genesee Country Museum reenactment in Mumford for a number of years.