Bev Sims works as an accountant and has two adult children. Following the death of her mother, she began to research her family tree on a genealogy website. She traced her lineage back to the US census of 1900 but could not find further information until she connected with her second cousin's wife, coauthor Dianne Zitnik. Together they mined Russian church archives for the gems of family history that fill this book.

Dianne Zitnik grew up in New Zealand. She met her husband on a backpacking trip to Alaska, where they raised three children. Her various careers have ranged from horticulture to tourism. She became interested in her genealogy when she became the matriarch after a relative's death, but she hit a wall in researching her own family tree. She found Sims through her husband's family tree, and their shared research took off-and resulted in their fascinating book.