Elaine Gillett, Daniel Pinna, Norma Erickson

Norma was adopted when she was 3 years old by the Dahlquist family but she always saw her sister and brothers. The siblings were close all of their lives.

I was born in San Jose, California and have lived in the Silicon Valley Bay Area my entire life. In fact, I'm 3rd generation San Jose which is a rarity these days. I was raised by my mother Kathleen Rae (Kroetch) Pinna with the help of my grandmother Marian Joyce (Benning) Kroetch. I spent my early years in the Cambrian area of San Jose, a few years in Palo Alto, and own homes in Cambrian and Willow Glen California. I attended St. Francis Cabrini k-8th grade, Bellarmine College Preparatory and Santa Clara University. My passion has always been building things since an early age. I worked at the Santa Clara Valley Contractors Association (SCVCA) for my mentor Larry Gates while attending high school and each weekend answered the phones (aka switchboard) for the Jesuit Priests on a work scholarship program. I continued to work at SCVCA while attending college where I began the Santa Clara Entrepreneur Organization (SCEO), was active in the Student Senate and Off Campus Student Association, and in my sophomore year began the first version of AncientFaces. Post graduation I went on to manage a sub-contracting kitchen & bath remodeling company for three years, then worked as VP of Business Development at an eDiscovery company in Palo Alto from 2006 until the end of 2010. In early 2011, I began working full time on AncientFaces and have been at it ever since. I am humbled that I get to help build the application and community that makes AncientFaces. I married Lisa Michelle Kinslow on June 14th, 2014 in Pebble Beach, and currently reside in Willow Glen California approximately 4 miles away from where both sets of my grandparents used to live around the 1950's.

Elaine Marguerite Kroetch was adopted by the Bell family when her mother died (she was age 8). Since her younger sister was also adopted (by the Dahlquist family) and her brothers Fred (who lived with his Aunt Wea) and Frank (who lived for a time with his Aunt Thelma) were sent to live with family, even at the young age of 8 Elaine insisted that she and her siblings see each other often. And they did. They always told stories of the mischief they got into as kids. As a result, they were close all of their lives and so were their children ("the cousins"). Although only Frank and Elaine lived in Washington state as adults (Norma lived in San Diego and Fred lived in Dayton Ohio), they spoke on the phone often and visited often. Fred died first (lung cancer), then Frank (cardiac arrest), then Norma, then Elaine. Although her mother's family didn't like our grandfather and therefore obtained an order from a (family friend) judge to keep him from the children, they did see my grandfather as adults. My dad (Frank) and Fred saw him often. The girls still held a grudge against him.