TURN STONE RESEARCH

Turn Stone Research aims to educate and engage people with place and past utilizing a variety of resources. In-depth researching takes place both on paper and in the field. Focusing a historical lens on our landscapes forges new connections that allow us to become closer to our backyards, neighbors, and ancestors.

Owner Samantha Ford has worked in municipal government and museums for more than a decade. Her experience as an Assistant Town Clerk, Deputy Registrar of Vital Statistics, and Director of Historical Research & Outreach, along with a life-long passion for history and learning has allowed her to develop partnerships with public and private entities.

Sam has worked closely with families to digitize personal collections, and survey properties to determine eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. Her work with non-profit and municipal organizations includes field workshops, records management, social media coordination, grant and creative writing.

SAMANTHA FORD

Sam's passion for history extends back nearly three decades, when her parents found her watching the History Channel instead of Saturday morning cartoons. She discovered her interest in genealogy at 16, and has been within arm's reach of a book ever since. 

When she graduated with her MSc. in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont in 2013, Sam headed west to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where a burgeoning career in field teaching first took hold. As the Director of Historical Research and Outreach at the Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum, a staff training for local wildlife guides became a jumping off point into interpreting history for self-identified “non-historians.” 

She returned home to Vermont in 2015, where the history is deeper and the woods greener. Sam prefers to learn and teach outside, replacing the book stacks of her youth with hardwood forests. Sam's happiest when others are inspired to share their own personal history with her during a walk in the woods.