Welcome to my home page.  My interests range from government and politics to genealogy.  I am recently retired from a public relations firm and have 35 years of experience with California state government.

I am co-editor of the California Target Book , a nonpartisan analysis of California legislative and congressional campaigns.  My political background was in Republican politics, but I am mostly involved in political and elections analysis these days.  I also write occasional for the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee.  I author a periodic column for Comstock's Magazine, and for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.

My genealogy is Italian Swiss on my mother's side, Irish and English on my father's side.  The Italian Swiss comes from the Canton of Ticino, the southernmost canton in Switzerland and the only Italian-speaking canton.  Between 1850 and 1930, around 30,000 Italian Swiss came to California.  I authored a book on this migration, On Wings of Gold , that tells the story of three Swiss families that makes up my Italian Swiss heritage: the Salmina Family of Intragna, the Morosoli/Morisoli Family of Monte Carasso, and the Dodini Family of Lavertezzo.

My father's ancestry is three quarters Irish, including the Quinn Family from Galway, O'Brien Family from Wexford and Carroll Family from Donegal; and one quarter English.  The English ancestry includes the Brooking Family of Devon, England, and Virginia; the Pryor/Garland Family of Virginia; and the Brooks and Siddle Families of Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri.  I am a member of the Brooking Society , with chapters in England and America.

During the Civil War, my Irish family in Missouri were fervent Confederates. Uncle Dennis Carroll was a Confederate spy, arrested by Union soldiers and sentenced to be shot.  His sister, Mary Carroll, my great grandmother, rescued him from the Boonville jail in Cooper County by  fashioning a jail key and smuggling it to him.  Union authorities hunted down both of them and finally succeeded in shooting Dennis,.  Fifty years later, Mary recorded her Civil War experiences in The Secret of the Key and Crowbar . 

If you have an interest in any of these areas, please contact me . 

Updated: September 2004