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Catherine Desmarais, CG®
Certified Genealogist Catherine Becker Wiest Desmarais is the owner of Stone House Historical Research, where she leads a team of researchers specializing in forensic genealogical research for probate, real estate, and military repatriation cases.
Her firm completes more than 6,000 hours of forensic genealogy research annually and has assisted the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency to locate families for more than one thousand missing service members. A professional genealogist since 2006 and board-certified since 2011, Catherine has a broad range of genealogical experience in the U.S. and internationally, with particular expertise in Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Ireland.
Catherine is a past vice-president of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). She is a founding member of APG’s Forensic Genealogy Special Interest Group (ForGen SIG). After a long tenure on the program committee of APG’s New England chapter, she now serves in the same capacity for APG’s ForGen SIG. She has a MS in education from the University of Vermont and has taught at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, the Genealogical Institute of Pittsburgh, the Forensic Genealogy Institute, and the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference as well as local and regional venues. Her research and writing have been published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Crossroads, and the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly.
Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS
Colleen Robledo Greene, MLIS, is an academic librarian, college educator, and tech nerd who has been researching her family history since 1997. She is the Digital Literacy Librarian at California State University, Fullerton, and teaches an online graduate-level genealogical research methods course for San Jose State University. Colleen is a nationally recognized genealogy educator and speaker specializing in methodology, Mexican and Hispanic research, libraries and archives, and technology.
J. Mark Lowe, FUGA
J. Mark Lowe describes himself as a lifelong genealogist. He is a professional genealogist, author, and lecturer who specializes in original records and manuscripts throughout the South. Mark enjoys opportunities to share what he has learned over the years through YouTube, webinars, and institutes.
He serves as the course coordinator for “Research in the South” at IGHR (Georgia) and TIGR, does webinars for Legacy Family Tree Webinars, and has worked on several genealogical television series including Follow Your Past, African American Lives 2, Who Do You Think You Are?, and UnXplained Events as well as podcasts including Twice Removed and Blast From My Past.
He is a past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and past president of the Southern Kentucky Genealogical Society. Mark is a Fellow of the Utah Genealogical Society and was awarded the Graham T. Smallwood award and Lifetime Membership award by the Association of Professional Genealogists.
Kelvin L. Meyers
A fifth-generation Texan, Kelvin L. Meyers has been a professional forensic genealogist since 1996. He is a frequent speaker to genealogical societies and family associations throughout the U.S. He specializes in southern brick wall problems for clients.
Kelvin is a 1989 and 1990 alum of the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research at Samford University and has returned to IGHR as lecturer in the Southern and the Professional courses. In 2016, he co-coordinated with J. Mark Lowe “A Swing Through the South” at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogical Research (SLIG). In 2019, Kelvin coordinated “Burned Counties and More: Overcoming Record Loss” for SLIG.
A member of the forensic special interest group of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), Kelvin is a past board member of APG and a past president of the Lone Star Chapter of APG. He currently serves as the chair of the history and archives committee of First United Methodist Church in Dallas.
The Dallas Genealogical Society awarded Kelvin the Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award in December of 2018. In 2016, Kelvin published Research in Texas for the “Research in the States” series by the National Genealogical Society. Kelvin is the director of TIGR, a Texas State Genealogical Society event.
Judy G. Russell, CG®
Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist®, is a genealogist with a law degree. She writes, teaches and lectures on a wide variety of genealogical topics, providing expert guidance through the murky territory where law and family history intersect. A Colorado native with roots deep in the American south on her mother’s side and entirely in Germany on her father’s side, she holds a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a law degree from Rutgers School of Law-Newark. Before she retired, she worked as a newspaper reporter, trade association writer, legal investigator, defense attorney, federal prosecutor, law editor and, for more than 20 years, as an adjunct member of the faculty at Rutgers Law School.
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 course coordinator and faculty member at numerous genealogical institutes, she holds credentials as a Certified Genealogist® and Certified Genealogical Lecturer℠ from the Board for Certification of Genealogists®. Her award-winning blog appears at The Legal Genealogist® website (https://www.legalgenealogist.com).
Ari Wilkins
Ari Wilkins has been actively researching family history for over twenty years. Ms. Wilkins has spoken nationally at the National Genealogical Society, the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, the Texas Institute of Genealogical Research, the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, RootsTech, and a multitude of state and local societies.
She is the coordinator of the African American course for the Texas Institute of Genealogical Research.
Ari speaks on a variety of genealogical subjects and specializes in African American research.
Paul Woodbury, MEd, AG®
Paul Woodbury first developed an interest in genealogy when his grandparents gave him a family history binder for his eighth birthday. In 2006, he was introduced to genetic genealogy through a television special on African American research. The possibilities of this new and developing field captured his imagination, renewed his fascination for family history, and led to his interest and career in the field.
Paul is a graduate of Brigham Young University where he studied genetics and family history. Recently, he graduated with a masters degree in instructional design and educational technology from the University of Utah. Through his education and client research experience, he has developed specialties in DNA, French, Spanish, and Scandinavian research. Over the past five years, he has offered hundreds of classes, workshops, and lectures on research topics relating to these areas. Currently he works as a Genetic Genealogy Specialist for Legacy Tree Genealogists. In addition to genealogy, Paul enjoys singing, skiing, hiking, and balloon twisting. He and his family reside In Provo, Utah.
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