Ken Peek is a building contractor residing part time in both Palm Springs and San Diego, California.

He also has an extensive background in art and music, having made his living for a short time building stained glass windows, and working in clay.

As a musician, he sang with San Diego Opera for seven years, also performing with San Diego Comic Opera, and many other choruses, quartets, and a jazz group, as well as singing at church.

He is an avid history buff, with special attention to the American westward movement, the Civil War, and Native American History. He also takes great interest in family history.

His home is furnished primarily with items from grandparents and great grandparents, and he drives a 1955 Chevy that belonged to his grandparents. He jokingly refers to his home as "the museum."

Coming from a long line of record keepers, Mr. Peek recently spent three weeks in Germany following the records of a German cousin, Dr. Eckhard Wessel, and tracing the steps of ancestors back to the mid 1400s, according to Dr. Wessel's two volumes of "Chronik Der Familie Wessel," published in 1961. Many of the family homes and businesses were found to be undisturbed by the war.

Ken has an extensive archive of family history collected by his grandparents, great grandparents, and great - great grandparents, including over two thousand letters, hundreds of photos, and many file folders full of interesting documents.

A lifetime of interest in American history and family history has now been combined in his books to share these stories of a pioneer family with the public.