Our Instructors

Sherry has been teaching family history for over 20 years. In the classroom she has taught for college adult education and credit programs, at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR), Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, and at the British Institute, Salt Lake City, a program of the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History. From 1996 to 2006 she led study tours to England and Scotland for IGHR. She has several years experience teaching via the Internet.

Sherry's genealogical background includes establishing and managing   her own business for 11 years, a bookstore and research service.   She sold the business to concentrate on writing and lecturing.   She has presented talks and seminars in Australia, Canada, England,   New Zealand and the United States and has made two appearances   as a keynote speaker at the Australasian Congress on Genealogy   and Heraldry, in 2003 and 2006. Sherry is the author of Your English Ancestry (2nd ed. 1998) and Scottish Ancestry: Research Methods for Family Historians (2003) both published by Ancestry. From the start of her career she has been involved in local and professional organizations. In 2005 the Association of Professional Genealogists presented her with the Smallwood Award of Merit for services to the organization and to genealogy.

Courses:

• Scottish Research Online
• Scotland 1750 - 1850: Beyond the OPRs
• England & Wales Online – Bring Your Knowledge to the Web
• Ireland: A Practical Approach to Family History
• Researching Irish Ancestors Before 1820
• One to One Tutorial

Publications:

        

Buy Sherry's Books Now - simply click on the book to be taken to the Ancestry Store.

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Helen Osborn BA (History), MA (Archives & Records Management) Merton Park, London, UK (website)

 

Helen has been teaching and lecturing on local history, historical records and genealogy for more than 10 years. She is the author of a University of Liverpool accredited distance learning course on records management, and was for many years the Archivist at Young & Co's Brewery PLC. Eight years ago she established a successful genealogy research company, Helen Osborn Research Ltd.

Her professional research work originally concentrated on census and civil registration but she is mainly to be found nowadays at The National Archives, Kew, where she is one of their independent researchers.  An occasional contributor to family history magazines, she is also the author of three books relating to public houses and brewing.  Helen's Website can be accessed here: http://www.osbornresearch.co.uk.

Courses:

• All You Ever Wanted to Know About Civil Registration 1837 – 2005
• Military Men and Women: Records of Britain's Armed Forces 1750-1920
• The National Archives Catalogue – Searching for People
• Second Stages in English Research

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Gill Blanchard, BA (History, Sociology), MA, Norwich, Norfolk, UK (website)

Gill holds a Post Graduate Certificate in adult education and for many years has been teaching courses in family history. She has taught for the adult education program of Norfolk County Council for several years. Independently she has planned her own family history courses and presented them at locations across Norfolk.

Her professional research experience includes working for the Norfolk Record Office and establishing a successful research company. Gill has provided research services for private individuals, academic institutions and authors; her clients are from many parts of the world.

Other genealogical work includes presenting talks for family history societies and other local organizations and writing for journals and magazines. Gill has been working as a genealogist since 1992. Gill's Website can be accessed here: http://www.pastsearch.co.uk.

Courses:

• Planting the Tree: Foundations for Your English English and Welsh Family History
• The Poor, The Parish and The Workhouse: Records in the 1800s
• Searching for Wills and Administrations in England and Wales

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Liz Carter (website)

Liz has been teaching and lecturing in family, local and social history for 15 years through adult education centres, the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (based at Madingley Hall, Cambridge) and the Workers Education Association (WEA). Her initial interest in family history soon broadened into local history - everyone has to live somewhere; and then included social history - our ancestors were affected by local and national events. Her specialist areas are 19th century social history, techniques for exploring local history, poverty and death! As well as teaching, Liz also runs a genealogical research business - Backtracks - established in 1989 and appears on the Experts Panel in Practical Family History magazine, answering reader's queries. She has also written and co-edited several local history books.

Courses:

• Victorian Households - Links from the Census
• Victorian Law and Order
  
  

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Brian Drescher, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, UK (website)

Brian has been a trainer for over thirty years, and now teaches family history for the WEA (Workers’ Educational Association). He is the author of WEA courses for beginners and more experienced family historians. Brian also runs his own genealogy research business, English Roots, with customers in the USA, Australia, Canada, the UK and elsewhere in Western Europe. His research for international customers has taken him to many archives in England and Wales. Brian is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, and has been awarded the Higher Certificate in Genealogy by the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies.

Most of Brian’s professional research has been in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His particular interests are in writing family histories and researching occupations. Brian’s “Drescher” ancestors were watch and clockmakers who came to England in the early nineteenth century from the Black Forest area of Germany. His Drescher family history was the focus for a family reunion that took place in 2005 and will be repeated again in 2007.

Courses:

• Writing Your Family History
  
  

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George G. Morgan, Tampa, Florida, USA (website)

George G. Morgan is president of Aha! Seminars, Inc., a company that provides seminars in soft skills and computer topics to library personnel and genealogical seminars to societies worldwide. A self-described "rabid genealogist," George is an internationally-recognized genealogy expert, working with and lecturing about almost all types of genealogical record types in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. He has been working on his family genealogy since 1962, and has extensive experience in the training field, having been a corporate training manager for both Sears, Roebuck & Co. and IBM/Advantis/IBM Global Network.

He is the prolific author of five books and literally hundreds of articles and columns in magazines such as Ancestry Magazine, Family Chronicle, Genealogical Computing, Heritage Quest Magazine, Internet Genealogy, the NGS Quarterly, in society journals, and for several online venues in the U.S., the U.K., and Singapore. His most recent book, The Official Guide to Ancestry.com, was released in May 2007 and has become a runaway bestseller. His previous book, How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy, published by McGraw-Hill/Osborne, is one of the best-selling genealogy books in the last twenty years.

George a director of the Florida Genealogical Society (Tampa), the Publicity Director for the Florida State Genealogical Society, a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society, the Society of Genealogists (UK), the Genealogy Speakers Guild, the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (and its immediate past president), and more than thirty other genealogical societies in the U.S. and U.K. He is a member of the faculty of both National Institute for Genealogical Studies at the University of Toronto and the University of South Florida's Division of Continuing Development, teaching genealogical distance education courses for each.

George is the co-host, with his partner, Drew Smith, of "The Genealogy GuysSM Podcast", and publishes his weekly "Along Those Lines ." blog at http://ahaseminars.livejournal.com. He lives in Tampa, Florida.

Courses:

• US Genealogy Online
• US Immigration and Naturalization Records: Keys to Ancestral Origins

Publications:

Buy George’s Book Now - simply click on the book to be taken to the Ancestry Store.

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Guy Grannum (website)

Guy Grannum has been researching his English and Bajan ancestry for over 20 years and runs a website dedicated to Caribbean research www.caribbeanroots.co.uk.

He has worked at The National Archives, Kew since 1988 and specialises in Colonial history and genealogy, and especially Caribbean genealogy. He is a qualified archivist and also has a diploma in Genealogy and the History of Family from Birkbeck College, London.

Guy has published two editions of Tracing Your West Indian Ancestors and has written several articles on Caribbean and African-Caribbean genealogy. Since 1993 he given many talks and workshops to archives, family history groups and libraries in London, the Midlands and the South West on sources in the National Archives, genealogy in general, and Caribbean genealogy. Guy was also one of the expert speakers at Who Do You Think You Are? Live in Olympia, 5-7 May 2007.

Courses:

• Caribbean Family History
  

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Where To Meet Us:

England, Gill Blanchard, East of London FHS Fair, Eastbury School, Hulse Ave., Barking, Essex. IG11 9UW, 19 January 2008