Brooks began studying genealogy and history in his spare time in the 1980s. As he graduated from college in 1986, he began to delve deeper into those studies, realizing a great love and connection to his past. After operating a stained glass business in Florida for many years, he married and moved to his home state of North Carolina where he attended East Carolina University, this time to focus on
American History. He also remained there for graduate studies in the Maritime Studies Program. There, he developed his skill in conservation, archival science, and research. After extensive work with artifacts from the Modern Greece shipwreck, including some from the Ella and Ranger, he worked in 2012 on a project to restore select artifacts from the CSS Neuse gunboat in Kinston, NC with shining success! Furthermore, with a strong connection to his own family's history and the documents left by his grandfather, Brooks became fascinated with restoring these documents, dating from 1814-1883. Owing to this experience, he also restored the scrapbook of Rev. His father was an avid photographer in the 1930s and 1940s and left a large collection of 35mm negatives that needed preservation. Brooks worked tirelessly to digitize these negatives and preserve the cellulose film that they were developed upon. He has worked as an administrator for his family's digital archives since 1991. Since that time, many photos have arrived at his door, all then digitized and stored on a website, to be viewed by all. Today, Brooks is broadening his experiences. He continued his studies through Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Maryland. Recently, he restored original documents from a private collection dating from 1730, including original grants in the Lower Cape Fear. He currently works as a professional research historian employed by authors and scholars.
