When weaving DNA and paper trail evidence together, how do we know when enough is enough? There is often a thin line between a convincing case and one that falls just short of meeting genealogical standards. When we look at specific cases, what guides us in determining when we have enough DNA or enough documentary evidence or enough of both-and when more will be needed to meet the Genealogical Proof Standard?

Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist®, is a genealogist with a law degree who provides expert guidance through the murky territory where law and family history intersect. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society and numerous state and regional genealogical societies. A recipient of the Silver Tray Award from the Utah Genealogical Association and the 2017 Award of Excellence from the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, she now serves as a member of the NGSQ editorial board. An internationally-known lecturer and award-winning writer, she holds credentials as a Certified Genealogist® and Certified Genealogical Lecturer℠ from the Board for Certification of Genealogists®. Her blog is at https://www.legalgenealogist.com.

Learn how to build place guides and find resources to research the history, geography, and culture in the times and places your ancestors lived. Discover where to find historic maps, boundary changes, information about local history, and more.

Claire is a professional genealogist with more than twenty years of experience in teaching, lecturing, and research spanning New England, Atlantic Canada, Ireland, England, and the West Indies, including both traditional and DNA research. A former high-tech executive, Claire applies her technology skills and innovative methodologies to optimize her genealogy research. She is a graduate of the ProGen study group and holds certificates in Genealogical Research from Boston University and in Genealogy and Family History from the University of Washington. Claire is former President of the Bainbridge Island Genealogical Society and served as Seminar Program Chair for the Massachusetts Genealogical Council. She lives in the Greater Boston Area.

Alicia Crane Williams, FASG, will talk about her work as Lead Genealogist of the Early New England Families Study Project for NEHGS, concentrating on families of Essex County. Out of 123 sketches published to date, Alicia has produced twenty-nine that treat families associated with Essex County. Studying these families as groups often illustrates how they were, or were not, related or associated with one another; when they came to Essex County; how they migrated within and/or out of the county; and what lesser-known resources are available for them.

As a professional genealogist for forty-eight years, Alicia has compiled and edited numerous multi-family genealogies and surname works, including the first three volumes of the John Alden family for the Mayflower Families through Five Generations project. She has been editor of the journal Mayflower Descendant, State Historian of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, Assistant Historian General of the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, and Genealogist of the Alden Kindred of America. Her current endeavor, the NEHGS’s Early New England Families Study Project [ENEF], was created to fill the need for accurate and concise published summaries on seventeenth-century New England families, as a companion to The Great Migration Study Project (immigrants from 1620-1640).

For our December meeting, we will host an online get-together with show-and-tell opportunities and open discussions. We invite you to share a research breakthrough, an interesting family story, or an exciting discovery. Prepare now to present a piece of your research. The meeting host can enable you to share your computer screen to display pedigree charts, photos, or stories. Alternatively, you can email a file ahead of time to Barbara Beake, who can share it onscreen for you while you discuss it. You can also show objects by holding them up in front of your computer (or phone) camera. Time will also be allotted to brainstorm brick-wall problems or pose research questions.

If you would like to be included for a presentation or brick-wall discussion, please email Barbara Beake at vp@esog.org.

This talk will explore the lives of the approximately four hundred Scottish soldiers taken prisoner at the Battles of Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651) who were shipped to New England in forced labor. Most served their five-to-seven-year indentures at the Saugus Ironworks, the sawmills of northern New England, or other hard and dangerous jobs. Once freed they were granted land and became permanent settlers, though their language, customs and Presbyterian faith made them a distinct element in “Puritan” New England.

Emerson "Tad" Baker is a professor of History at Salem State University and has previously served as vice provost and dean of the graduate school. He is the award-winning author or co-author of six books on the history and archaeology of early New England, including A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. Baker has served as consultant and on-camera expert for historical documentaries and TV shows for networks ranging from PBS and TLC to Smithsonian and the History Channel.

DNA test results can be overwhelming. In this case study, Seema demonstrates how she used the shared matches within her DNA test results to narrow in on the identification of her maternal grandfather and fill in many holes in her family tree.

Seema-Jayne Kenney started exploring her family history when still in High School. Her paternal family roots go deep into Colonial New England, especially in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine. Her European roots include English, German, and Swedish. DNA has recently added a branch to her family tree from The Netherlands. She started in the business of genealogy after completing the Genealogical Research Certificate Program at Boston University’s Center for Professional Education in 2010. She has continued her education via ProGen & NIGR in 2012. She is a member of several genealogy societies, among them being a key organizer of the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium (NERGC).

The early American attitude of idealism and growth led many people to try their hand at being successful yeomen, holding and cultivating their own land for their own benefit.  The old "establishment" ways were being challenged by a society that demanded improvement and change.  One of the artifacts of this was the creation of organizations and methods that fostered self-improvement.  During this talk, we will review two of these "continuing education" methods of the 19th century that brought high-quality educational opportunities to the areas remote from the universities of the day.  The first was the Lyceum movement, which brought famed lecturers on a traveling circuit.  The second was the Chautauqua movement, which added additional content areas for self-improvement, introspection, and entertainment.  We will see how Lyceums and Chautauquas were implemented, with special case studies among the communities in and around Essex County, Massachusetts.

Similar to many genealogists, Joseph Jackson has blended his talents learned from his occupation into his approach to family history research.  By day he is a research engineer helping unmanned aerial vehicles fly more safely.  By night he is a history sleuth, searching for connections among his ancestors.  He serves on the Wilmington Historical Commission and seeks to understand the context for the clues within the writings that our forebears have left behind.  Joe lives in Wilmington, Massachusetts with his wife Jennifer and their four boys.

Google Earth is much more than just a mapping program.  In this presentation you will learn how to harness Google Earth’s capabilities by using it as a multi-media way to tell your ancestor’s story and leave a legacy for future generations. Learn how to incorporate images, videos, genealogical documents, and historic maps and bring it all together in a unique virtual family history tour that you can share on blogs, websites, by email and more, as well as use to further your research through geographic analysis.

Lisa Louise Cooke is the author of several books including The Genealogist's Google Toolbox, 3rd edition. She produces and hosts the popular Genealogy Gems Podcast (founded in 2007) and publishes weekly videos at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. She offers a Premium Membership service at her website at https://lisalouisecooke.com featuring exclusive on-demand genealogy education. And she writes a regular column for Family Tree Magazine and produces the Family Tree Magazine Podcast.

Linda MacIver will introduce us to DeepStory, MyHeritage’s groundbreaking new AI-based tool which enables your family history to come alive. Built upon their previous photo enhancement and colorization tools, MyHeritage has added very realistic animation and audio, allowing your ancestors to tell their own personalized stories. You can edit and expand the basic narrative, and, by adding photographs and maps, provide context in time and place. If you have struggled with attempts to provide a fun and easy way to reach out to family members, DeepStory‘s simple template creates an exciting and unique product to document, preserve, and share your most treasured family memories.

Linda B. MacIver is an educator, lecturer, librarian, and genealogy researcher. She recently retired from a 27- year career at the Boston Public Library where she inaugurated the BPL patron genealogy classes, teaching the multi-week beginners’ course for five years. She organized two popular seasons of the Local and Family History series and developed the Intermediate Genealogy Summer Lecture series. Linda is the former Secretary and Civil Records Director for Federal Records for the Massachusetts Genealogical Council and a member of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists (MSOG) and the Essex (Mass.) Society of Genealogists (ESOG.) She serves as the New England Representative for the Essex (England) Record Office. Linda has a BA in History from the University of New Hampshire, an MEd from Boston University and earned her MLIS at Simmons College. She was the 2018 recipient of the Richard S. Lackey Scholarship to the Genealogical Institute for Federal Records (GEN-FED) and the inaugural recipient of the 2019 Senior at the Center of Excellence Award sponsored by Xerox Corporation and the City of Boston.

What’s in a brick wall? Most likely a surname in a particular time and place, which you can’t trace farther back. In this talk, we will learn some techniques and resources to find clues to a surname’s history. Two areas of focus will be the Guild of One-Name Studies, which can be particularly helpful with surnames of English origin, and Y-DNA testing, with its wide range of capabilities.

Stephen Hartwell is a professional genealogist specializing in New England and New York research, genetic genealogy, and family history websites. He is a graduate of the Boston University Genealogical Research Certificate Program, a Board member of the Essex Society of Genealogists and a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. His website can be found at https://shartwell.com.

Heraldry has been used as a visual token of personal and family identity from the Middle Ages to the present. It is traditionally a natural sister discipline of genealogy. The Internet has made heraldry more accessible than ever before, but most genealogists think less about heraldry than we used to before the explosion of genealogy as a hobby since the 1970s. This introduction lays out the first questions to ask and the first resources to know to rediscover heraldry from a genealogical perspective, including examples from Dr. Taylor's own Essex County roots.

Nathaniel Taylor, FASG, is the Editor and Publisher of The American Genealogist. He was drawn into genealogy in the 1980s, researching his Essex County ancestry while studying medieval history as a graduate student. He subsequently taught medieval and modern history at the university level for fifteen years. His genealogical research ranging from medieval Europe to colonial New England and Virginia has been published in numerous historical and genealogical journals, and he has spoken on a variety of skill-building and special topics, including heraldry, at conferences and for groups throughout the United States and internationally. He has been a volunteer on the Committee on Heraldry of the New England Historic Genealogical Society since 2006 and has been its Registrar since 2019, most recently shepherding its Roll of Arms: Eleventh Part into publication in 2022.

Many of us are familiar with the usual English records for genealogy research prior to 1800, such as church and probate records. Paul will address some of the concerns and issues to watch for with these records. He will then guide us to some lesser-known records and explain how to access and interpret them. The goal is to get us to rethink the research we have done so far, and to give us new options of records to search.

Paul Milner, who was raised on the West Coast of northern England, is a professional genealogist and internationally known lecturer specializing in British Isles research. He came to the U.S. in 1975 to get his graduate degree at the University of Wisconsin and has been here ever since. Paul has been designing genealogy workshops, writing books, and lecturing for over thirty-five years on a variety of topics relating to research in the British Isles, migration to North America and research methodology. He is the 2018 recipient of the Utah Genealogical Society Fellow Award and a past board member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and the British Interest Group of Wisconsin and Illinois.

Once again, we will not be having our usual holiday luncheon and meeting in Lynnfield, Massuchsetts, so we will instead host an online get-together with show-and-tell opportunities. We invite you to share a research breakthrough, an interesting family story, or an exciting discovery. Prepare now to present a piece of your research. The meeting host can enable you to share your computer screen to display pedigree charts, photos, or stories. Alternatively, you can email a file ahead of time to Barbara Beake, who can share it onscreen for you while you discuss it. You can also show objects by holding them up in front of your computer (or phone) camera. Time will also be allotted to brainstorm brick-wall problems.

If you would like to be included for a presentation or brick-wall discussion, please email Barbara Beake at vp@esog.org.

As you grumble about the ever-increasing costs of the commercial databases, do you sometimes admit to yourself that you don’t value free sites as much as you should? With a whole truckload of formerly copyright-protected, now freely-available, materials out there, has it been at least a year since you stopped to search the Internet Archive, the Digital Commonwealth, or the Digital Public Library of America? Let’s revisit these three and a few additional favorites of mine, old and new, to add to your list of: “When did I last go mining for a golden discovery in ...?!”

Linda B. MacIver is an educator, lecturer, librarian, and genealogy researcher. She recently retired from a 27- year career at the Boston Public Library where she inaugurated the BPL patron genealogy classes. She taught the multi-week beginners’ genealogy course for five years. She also organized two extremely popular seasons of the Local and Family History series and developed the Intermediate Genealogy Summer Lecture series. Linda is the former Secretary and Civil Records Director for Federal Records for the Massachusetts Genealogical Council and a member of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists (MSOG) and the Essex (Mass.) Society of Genealogists (ESOG.) She serves as the New England Representative for the Essex (England) Record Office. Linda has a BA in History from the University of New Hampshire, an MEd from Boston University and earned her MLIS at Simmons College. She was the 2018 recipient of the Richard S. Lackey Scholarship to the Genealogical Institute for Federal Records (GEN-FED) and the inaugural recipient of the 2019 Senior at the Center of Excellence Award sponsored by Xerox Corporation and the City of Boston.

Diane will explore the Find A Grave website to show how to search for memorials from around the globe, utilizing some of the enhanced search features to find people. She will also demonstrate how to use the Mobile app on your smartphone when visiting cemeteries. You can locate cemeteries and gravesites using GPS coordinates, and take photos to upload and add to Find A Grave memorials, including captions and GPS locations. This often-overlooked website has become a valuable genealogical resource, and is one to which you can easily contribute. We invite you to share your experiences with Find A Grave as well.

Diane is a member of the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, serving as the Society Treasurer and Secretary of the Merrimack Valley Chapter. She has been involved in genealogy research for forty years.

Just how useful can DNA be in researching our Revolutionary ancestors? Are there reliable DNA uses in lineage research as suggested by new lineage society guidelines? Explore the DNA footprint of a boy who was kidnapped and escaped to enlist and fight in the Revolutionary War under General Washington.

Jennifer Zinck, CG® is a genealogical researcher, speaker, and educator with a passion for learning and applying genealogy standards to help reclaim lost and forgotten stories of our ancestors. Jennifer earned her credential from the Board for Certification of Genealogists in 2021. She serves as the President of the Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Connecticut Society of Genealogists. Jennifer is a member of the faculty of the Boston University Center for Professional Education Genealogy Studies Program. She enjoys sharing her contagious enthusiasm for family history with people of all ages.

Over three hundred letters found in my uncle’s attic tell a compelling story of his life as a young WWII soldier, as well as his family’s experiences back home. These letters document his service with the Fifth Army Headquarters, from registering at Fort Devens, training at two separate camps, then travelling overseas to Italy. He describes the work and the leisure, the rules, and the return trip. Letters from his family tell of their life at home during the war. Learn about or re-live the years 1943-45 as we travel through his time using the words of a 19-year-old country boy and his family!

Seema is an experienced software instructor and a professional genealogist. Based on over twenty years of research, her known roots are deep in New England as well as England, Germany, and Sweden, with DNA now adding a line from The Netherlands. She has a certificate in Genealogical Research from BU, completed ProGen, and is an active member of several societies and part of the NERGC planning committee.

As genealogists, we are accustomed to charting relationships and drawing inferences, and we frequently compare the effort to solving puzzles or pursuing a treasure hunt. What if we wanted to construct a genealogical map for a particular person or community? Published maps can literally be a treasure trove of information about a community's residents, and can provide a basis for sorting through relationships and movements. This talk will show how to index old map data onto geographic coordinates using Google My Maps, correlate residents with FamilySearch IDs, and incorporate other data of interest into a shareable visual format. Several case studies of building custom Google Maps will be presented.

Joseph's natural interest in maps, statistics, and history leads him to lose himself frequently in exploration of old gazetteers and atlases. He is an Eagle Scout with an Orienteering Merit Badge, and has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from BYU, where his thesis focused on building maps from panoramic video sensors aboard small flying drones. He is a hiker, a Geocaching enthusiast, and a consumer of stories about local history. In his professional life, he helps Unmanned Aerial Vehicles solve navigation and control problems. In his home life, he lives in Wilmington, Massachusetts with his wife Jennifer, and their four boys.

In 1918 with the war raging in Europe, a silent deadly killer traveled with the soldiers from the United States over to the war zones in France. Considered America’s deadliest epidemic, it killed more people here than the soldiers that lost their lives fighting. As quickly as the virus spread it disappeared by early 1919. Many genealogical and historical records document our ancestors who died or survived this terrible period of our history.

Michael L. Strauss, AG®, is a professional Accredited Genealogist® and a nationally recognized speaker. A native of Pennsylvania and a resident of Utah, he is employed by Ancestry. Strauss has a BA in History and is a United States Coast Guard veteran. He is a qualified expert witness in the courts in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia and is a faculty member at SLIG, GRIP, and IGHR where he is the Military Course Coordinator.

While you may think you’ve hit a brick wall with your research, have you tried using cluster and collateral search strategies to look for an opening? Researching non-direct relations as well as those friends and neighbors in your ancestors’ network can pay off in ways you might not imagine. Learn why researching those in-laws, “shirt-tail cousins,” and others who may not be a direct-line ancestor as well as “friends, neighbors, and associates” can help you break down your genealogy research brick walls.

What happens when a “tech guy” with a love for history gets laid off during The Great Recession of 2008? You get me, Thomas MacEntee, a genealogy professional who’s also a blogger, educator, author, social media connector, marketer, network builder, and more. Thomas was laid off after a 25-year career in the information technology field, so he started his own genealogy-related business called High- Definition Genealogy. Currently Thomas shares many of his articles and videos for free at GenealogyBargains.com! “I’m a lifelong learner with a background in a multitude of topics and I’ve finally figured out what I do best: teach, inspire, instigate, and serve as a curator and go-to-guy for concept nurturing and inspiration. I believe in success, and that we all succeed when we help each other find success.

Although we had hoped to return to our in-person holiday luncheon this year, pandemic uncertainty makes in more likely that we will be hosting another online member show-and-tell and discussion meeting via Zoom. We are exploring options for future hybrid meetings, so that when it is safe to meet in person, we will also be able to include attendees (and potential speakers) remotely on Zoom. Look for updates on our website, Facebook pages, and in the November TEG.

In any event, ponder now on something you can contribute to a lively discussion, such as a research breakthrough, a puzzling brick wall, an interesting family story, or perhaps a favorite holiday tradition or family recipe. If you would like to be included for a presentation or brick-wall discussion, please email Barbara Beake at vp@esog.org.

Learn about maritime record sets that can be useful to genealogists researching Essex County ancestors in the 18th and 19th centuries. We will examine resources both online and in local repositories, and look at numerous examples of what we can discover about the lives of those who made their living from the sea.

Stephen Hartwell is a professional genealogist specializing in New England / New York research, genetic genealogy, and family history websites. He is a graduate of the Boston University Genealogical Research Certificate Program and a Board member of the Essex Society of Genealogists. His website can be found at https://shartwell.com.

We are allowing limited requests for non-members to join us for the November 20 meeting and presentation. If you are interested, please send your name and email address to membership@esog.org.

Genealogists with New England ancestors have a great advantage in being able to use Town Records as a resource. From earliest times, New England towns began keeping records of their many activities. This virtual lecture will highlight the benefits of using town records in genealogy, provide examples of gems in the records, suggest ways to locate the records, and present keys to using these records successfully. As always, Dr. McCoy looks forward to an interactive session with questions, comments, and additions to her ideas.

Dr. Carol P. McCoy, President of Find-Your-Roots in Brunswick, Maine, has been tracing her family history for over 30 years. She grew up in Bronxville, NY and graduated from Connecticut College with an A.B. in psychology. She received her M.S. degree and Ph.D. degree in psychology from Rutgers University. After the hustle and bustle of NYC, she migrated north to Maine in 1991. Prior to starting her own genealogy business in 2001 and her training consulting business in 1999, Carol worked as a training director for UNUM in Portland, Maine. Carol has formerly served as President of the Maine Genealogical Society (MGS), as a Director for MGS, and as President of the Greater Portland Chapter of MGS. She transcribed the Vital Records of Durham Maine (published by MGS.) Dr. McCoy

has given genealogical talks for the New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC), the Maine Genealogical Society (MGS) Conference, the Greater Portland Chapter of the MGS, the Limerick Maine Historical Society, the Falmouth Maine Historical Society, the D.A.R. sponsored conference in Winslow Maine, and for other groups.

The One-Step website started out as an aid for finding passengers in the Ellis Island database. Shortly afterwards it was expanded to help with searching in the 1930 census. Over the years it has continued to evolve and today includes about 300 web-based tools divided into 16 separate categories ranging from genealogical searches to astronomical calculations to last-minute bidding on e-bay. This presentation will describe the range of tools available and give the highlights of each one.

Stephen Morse is the creator of the One-Step Website for which he has received both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society, first-ever Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists, and two awards that he cannot pronounce from Polish genealogical societies. In his other life Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical engineering. He has held various research, development, and teaching positions, authored numerous technical papers, written four textbooks, and holds four patents. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today's Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution 40 years ago.

Sometimes overwhelming to beginners and sometimes underused by veterans, Cyndi’s List is a research tool that is robust with resources helpful in everyone’s research. Using specific examples for beginners, as well as more advanced researchers, we will explore the site and point out how to make the most of the categories and the links found within.

Cyndi Ingle is the creator and innovator behind the award-winning and globally recognized CyndisList.com, a free categorized list of more than 337,000 links for genealogical research. Cyndi, a genealogist for more than 40 years, has an expertise in using technology for genealogy. Additionally, her many active years in genealogy have also resulted in specialties for research in the United States and bringing together traditional methodology with organization, computers, software, and the Internet. Cyndi is the recipient of several awards and honors, she has served in several capacities for genealogical organizations, she is an internationally-known guest lecturer, and she has authored numerous articles and three books.

Lowell historian Richard P. Howe Jr., will share the story of this fascinating city and will explore its many connections with the people and communities of Essex County. Lowell burst on the American scene in the 1820s as the center of textile manufacturing in America. Innovation was central to Lowell’s success and the city became a magnet for those with talent, energy and drive. But after the Civil War, a host of factors contributed to the city’s gradual decline. The Great Depression came early and stayed late in Lowell. Then in the late 1970s, things changed. The meteoric rise of Wang Labs, the creation of Lowell National Historic Park and inspired civic and political leadership launched a revival that has made Lowell one of the most exciting mid-sized cities in post-industrial America.

Richard P. Howe Jr. is the Register of Deeds for the Middlesex Northern District and the founder of Lowell Walks, which presents walking tours of downtown Lowell in partnership with Lowell National Historic Park. He holds a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and an M.A. in history from Salem State University. He lectures frequently on Lowell history and on the use of land records in genealogical research.

Now that you have pages of matches and gobs of new information, how do you keep track of it all? We will spend time going over how to create and track correspondence, organizational tools within each testing company, as well as strategies for tracking the genealogy information of your matches, including surnames, locations, and genetic relationships. You are bound to walk out of this lecture with a game plan that you can implement right away.

Diahan Southard is a leading voice for consumer DNA testing from her position as Founder of Your DNA Guide. Diahan teaches internationally, writes for popular magazines, consults with leading testing companies, is the author of Your DNA Guide – the Book, and producer of Your DNA Guide – the Academy, an online learning experience. Southard's company, Your DNA Guide (YourDNAGuide.com), provides genetic genealogy education products and services. You will walk away from an interaction with her feeling enlightened and motivated as she has a passion for genetic genealogy, a genuine love for people, and a gift for making the technical understandable.

In this pandemic year, we will not be having our usual holiday luncheon and meeting in Lynnfield, so we have decided to have an online get-together with show-and-tell opportunities. We invite you to share a research breakthrough, an interesting family story, or an exciting discovery. Prepare now to present a piece of your research. The meeting host will enable you to share your computer screen to display pedigree charts, photos, or stories. You can also show objects by holding them up in front of your computer (or phone) camera. Time will also be allotted to brainstorm brick-wall problems.

If you would like to be included for a presentation or brick-wall discussion, please email Barbara Beake at vp@esog.org.

This lecture will explore the abundance of available town records, including: first settlers; land transactions; governing boards; taxes; warnings out; town meetings, schools, churches, manumissions, indentures, military, licenses, estrays/earmarks, published town reports, and WPA records.

Diane Florence Gravel, CG®, is a Board-certified genealogist, working as a full- time genealogical and historical researcher and lecturer. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, she lived in Miami, Florida, before moving to Thornton, New Hampshire, in 2001. There, she became immersed in New England research, and in 2002 was appointed co-editor of New Hampshire Families in 1790, a project of the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists documenting the families of the 1790 census. She lectures at regional and national conferences and has been an instructor at the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG). Diane has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Professional Genealogists and chaired its Chapter Review Committee. In recognition of her work for APG, she was awarded the 2018 Grahame T. Smallwood Jr. Award of Merit. She is also a Past President of APG’s New England Chapter. Diane currently serves as President of the New Hampshire Society of Genealogists. She has been a trustee of the Thornton Public Library since 2004.