Valerie Sims

Valerie Sims grew up in the US Virgin Islands, a descendant with ten generations of family history in the US and British Virgin Islands. Her love of family history all started with wonderful conversations with her grandmother! Her entertaining tales of buried treasures, haunted houses, and out-of-body experiences sent shivers down Valerie's spine and sparked her life-long fascination with genealogy. In 2010, Valerie captured the top prize for the Deputy Governor’s History Research Award in the British Virgin Islands for her research paper about her second great-grandfather. It was entitled, The Life of Henry O. Creque, 1858 to 1915, A Biography. In 2015, she began researching and writing for her blog VintageVirginIslands.com. Today, it hosts over 300 posts about the history of the US Virgin Islands, the Danish West Indies, and the British Virgin Islands. In 2020, she published her first book about the history of the island of St. John entitled, Vintage St. John, Discover St. John’s History Through Seven Generations of Heartfelt Stories. Vintage Norman Island is her second family memoir. She hopes it will inspire others to document their family stories and keep their heritage alive. In 2023, she’ll be offering a 6-week program to help family historians publish their family memoirs, sharing her tips and templates. It’s called From Piles of Files to Published™. Learn more at PublishYourFamilyHistory.com and download a free guide to get started. Valerie and her husband currently make their home in the Caribbean, raising their two children with a watchful eye on their two rambunctious little dogs.