Margaret Conelley was born in 1956 in Hutchinson, Kansas. When she was a toddler, her family moved to Baltimore so that her father could work for the Social Security Administration. Later the family moved to Rockville, Maryland where Margaret spent most of her childhood. She graduated from Richard Montgomery High School and obtained an A.A. degree from Montgomery College, majoring in Cartography. Later she earned a B.A. degree in Fine Arts from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

In 1980 she married and her new husband joined the Army, becoming a Military Police Officer. The Army moved the couple to Honolulu, Hawaii. They had three wonderful years there and their first child, Russell, was born there. Margaret worked at the U.S. Army Museum in Waikiki as the assistant to the exhibit designer. After that the family moved to Anniston, Alabama for four years. Margaret worked for the Anniston Museum of Natural History while she was there. After a brief stay in Georgia, they moved to Chester, Virginia, near Richmond. Their second child, Joanne, was born there.

In 1992, peace broke out and Margaret's husband accepted a bonus and left the Army. They moved to Mt. Airy, Maryland and bought a printing franchise, which turned out to be a huge mistake. After the business collapsed they moved to Kensington, Maryland, so Margaret's husband could be closer to his new job. Margaret now works for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology as a bookkeeper. She is enrolled in the Web Specialist Certificate Program at Montgomery College.

Margaret is an amateur historian and has expanded a few scraps of family legend about her Civil War ancestors into a full account. Her family included Union and Confederate soldiers, who at one point were firing at each other during the siege of Vicksburg. She has identified a Civil War memoir as being written by a distant cousin, and hopes to publish it with maps and notes on the Web.