Category Archives: Uncategorized

New Fellows: Robert Battle, LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, and Randy A. West

The Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists (ASG) held their 82nd annual meeting on Saturday, October 9, 2021. Robert Battle of Tacoma, Washington; LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson of Washington, D.C.; and Randy A. West of Salt Lake City, Utah, were elected to the Society as its 169th, 170th, and 171st fellows, respectively.

Robert Battle has published many in-depth genealogical articles in scholarly journals over the past twenty years, principally The New England Historical and Genealogical Register and The American Genealogist. His publications focus on the origins of English colonial immigrants, both to New England and to the American South.  His articles demonstrate consistent and creative mastery of a wide variety of sources, and his writing displays skill and sensitivity in chronicling trans-Atlantic families.

LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson has a twenty-year record of writing family history, first as a dedicated amateur while practicing law, and then, since her retirement from that profession, as an authoritative writer and genealogical educator.  Her compiled genealogical scholarship in journals such as National Genealogical Society Quarterly focuses on African-American families during and after enslavement, including combining DNA match evidence with traditional documentary evidence in a notoriously difficult field. Her educational publications include a guide to researching African-American family history in Laurens County, South Carolina, where she has roots—a primer with important methodological lessons applicable nationally—, and an authoritative guide to genealogical research in the state of Alabama.

Randy A. West has a particular interest in the origin of seventeenth-century New England colonists. Over the past ten years he has published over two dozen articles, primarily in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register and The American Genealogist, with discoveries of the origins of New England colonists. His concise articles display a uniformly high level of precision in extracting crucial data, often overlooked by others, from a systematic review of relevant indexed and unindexed records.

 

David L. Greene, FASG

The Fellows have received with great sadness the news of the death of David L. Greene, FASG, the 115th Fellow and 19th President of the American Society of Genealogists (2007–2010).

Dr. Greene was Editor and Publisher of The American Genealogist from 1993 to 2015. Among his many genealogical interests was the genealogical study of those involved in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

ASG Scholar Award for 2021 to Faye Jenkins Stallings

The ASG Scholar Award rewards talented genealogists with stipends to pursue advanced academic training in genealogy. At its annual meeting on November 7, 2020, the American Society of Genealogists granted the ASG Scholar Award for 2021 to Faye Jenkins Stallings, CG, of Montgomery, Texas, for her article “Using Indirect Evidence to Find the Father of Robert Y. Jones of Hopkins County, Kentucky.” Ms. Stallings will use her award to attend the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy in 2021.

Photo Archive: 1997 Annual Meeting

The second-largest annual meeting of the ASG ever held: Salt Lake City, October 11, 1997. 35 Fellows in attendance. Surpassed to date (2020) only by the 2020 annual meeting, held by videoconference with 38 Fellows attending.

Front row: Beard, G. Russell, Martin, Austin, Hoff, H. Jones, Rasmussen, Joslyn, Dearborn, Macy, C. Hansen.
Middle row: Harris, Parsons, Hendrix, Burgert, Rose, Hyde, Mills, D. Russell, J. Fiske, Sanborn, Kelly, Leary.
Back row: Sheppard, Greene, R. Anderson, Thompson, J. Hansen, DeVille, Rising, Craig, Olsson, Allen, Sperry, Kaufholz.

Photo Archive: 2020 Annual Meeting

The Society’s 81st Annual Meeting was held entirely by videoconference on Saturday, November 7, 2020.  Of the 38 Fellows in attendance, 33 were able to pose for this image:

Row 1: Murphy, Taylor, Saxbe, Dwyer, Dobson, J. Anderson.
Row 2: Ullmann, Sperry, Lennon, Hart, Baldwin, J. Hansen.
Row 3: Hinchliff, T. Jones, Sanborn, J. Fiske, Joslyn, Hill.
Row 4: Byrne, Smith, Rose, Reed, Williams, Hoff.
Row 5: W Fiske, Hatcher, Mathews, Stott, Dearborn, Bamberg.
Row 6: Remington, Mills, C. Hansen.

The Littlefield Genealogy Receives the 2020 Donald Lines Jacobus Award

At the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Genealogists on November 7, 2020, the Society voted to give its Donald Lines Jacobus Award to The Littlefield Genealogy: Descendants of Edmund Littlefield of Wells, Maine, Through Six Generations, 2 vols.  (Waterville, Maine: Maine Genealogical Society, 2020), by Priscilla Eaton.

A Great Migration immigrant from Titchfield, Hampshire, England, Edmund Littlefield’s descendants grew to become one of the largest families in Maine, with branches extending to southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Quebec. Eaton’s research, supported by extensive documentation and detailed analysis, covers more than three thousand of Edmund’s descendants.

Caleb H. Johnson Elected 168th Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists

The Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists held their annual meeting on Saturday, November 7, 2020. Caleb H. Johnson of Paulden, Arizona, was elected to the Society as its 168th Fellow.

Caleb H. Johnson has conducted trailblazing genealogical research on the Mayflower passengers and their descendants for the past twenty-two years. In that time he has produced five books, a large number of scholarly articles, and an informational website, mayflowerhistory.com. This body of work includes the discovery, at first on his own and more recently in partnerships with two English scholars, of the origins of no fewer than twelve Mayflower passengers. From 2011 to 2014, Mr. Johnson was editor of Mayflower Descendant and contributed much of the material in that journal for those years.

Neil D. Thompson Elected Fellow Emeritus

At the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Genealogists on November 7, 2020, Dr. Neil D. Thompson, our 100th Fellow, was elected as a Fellow Emeritus, in recognition of his lifetime of contributions to genealogy. Among Dr. Thompson’s many contributions to the field is the journal The Genealogist, which he founded in 1980 and edited and published for many years; it is now published by the Society.

“The Henry Project” Now Hosted on the ASG Website

The Henry Project is a database of the known ancestors of King Henry II of England (b. 1133, d. 1189). Begun in 2001 by Stewart Baldwin, FASG, it offers concise but detailed genealogical data backed up with original evidence. Hosted elsewhere since 2001, it is now hosted on the ASG’s website by special arrangement, with a new narrative preface by Professor Baldwin.

Link to The Henry Project.