At a very young age, Henry was taught by his parents, Henry T. Peterson, Sr. and Bernice Marie Levron, to be hard-working and willing to help. Although they were a poor family, they instilled in him the value of being generous to others, even if it meant just lending a helping hand. He was born in Marrero, Louisiana and lived there until his father took a job with an oilfield company and the family moved to Lafayette. He had two siblings and a half-sibling, which are all now deceased.

As a boy, Henry had many interests, one of which was the Boy Scouts. It was there he began to develop skills that would help him later in life. This love for scouting would eventually lead him to pursue the role of “Scoutmaster”, where he would have the opportunity to mentor young men and teach them some of the same skills he learned as a boy.

As a teenager, he began working at various grocery stores near his home, mainly because they were the only places hiring workers at his age. He quickly assumed many new responsibilities and learned a great deal about hard work and building relationships with people. During high school, he also began working at his father’s automotive repair business. After graduating from Northside High School, as part of the first ever class to attend all four years, he continued to work in that business with his father.

It was at this time of his life that he met the love of his life, Shirley Shaw, and after a brief courtship, they married in August of 1966. He enlisted in the Louisiana National Guard in 1965, and because of his extensive mechanical skills, was recruited to become a full-time mechanic for the Guard as a Federal employee. He would remain in the Guard for 15 years, after that came to an end in 1980, he began working with his father and brother in the family automotive repair business until 1994.

During these years, Henry and Shirley expanded their family with the birth of a son, Kevin Ryan, and a daughter, Karen Lynn. Their children would each later marry, and his daughter would have his only grandchild, Dawson Cole Broussard.

In the spring of 1994, Henry Peterson began working at Carrol Guilbeau Tires as the Store Manager at the Johnston Street location. Customer service was his specialty, as he enjoyed meeting people and building relationships while providing excellent service to the many customers he had. He retired in February 2015.

Retirement allowed him to focus more time on genealogy, a lifetime passion of his. Gathering information and networking with friends and other genealogists, allowed him to amass a very large database, now with over 750,000 individuals (go to www.hpeterjr.us). This information was made free to search on the internet so that it could assist others in their own genealogical endeavors. He is also a Beta tester for the genealogical software, “Legacy.”

Henry is a member and past President of the Lafayette Genealogical Society where he has presented lectures and offered instructional support. He is the owner of Our Family History website, which is co-sponsored by the Lafayette Genealogical Society. He has been a consistent volunteer at activities that the Society supports and is always willing to help.

He has given countless hours of service to help many who were looking for family members or doing other genealogical research. Whether through his own database or through genetic testing pathways, he has been a part of over 25 cases some successful or some are in progress. This is something he enjoys as he helps them discover relatives they never knew they had. Some of these have been for closure. But, some have resulted in a kind of special bonding between close relatives.