The Fellows are saddened to report that Annette Kunselman Burgert, FASG, of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, died on Monday, 15 February 2021, at the age of 90. A dedicated genealogist with a focus on Palatine immigrants to Pennsylvania, she was elected a Fellow in 1990.

Her obituary has been published on the website of Huff-Guthrie Funeral Home.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Fellow George Ely Russell (1927-2013) has been named to the National Genealogy Hall of Fame at the 2020 meeting of the National Genealogical Society. He had been nominated by the American Society of Genealogists. The nomination paper read, in part:

George at the ASG’s 1994 Annual Meeting.

“George Ely Russell was one of the most prolific genealogists of our generation. In 1955, he started what became a massive output of genealogical articles and books, probably reaching around 150 publications. As its editor from 1970 to 1986, he brought the NGS Quarterly to its highest level, and it became recognized as ‘one of the four leading genealogical journals,’ the position it holds today. For several years, he was editor and publisher of Genealogical Periodical Annual Index, the pioneer in that field. His numerous articles on early Maryland families represent a significant contribution to the literature. As a lecturer at major genealogical conferences, he was an inspiration, mentor and teacher to many aspiring genealogists.”