 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(November 2019) |
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, [1] born October 9, is an American genealogist, [2] author, and speaker. She is also a consultant for the FBI and NCIS. [3]
Smolenyak holds a BSFS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, an MBA in International Business from George Washington University and an MAS in Information Technology from Johns Hopkins University. [4]
Since 1999, she has been a consultant with the U.S. Army's repatriation efforts to locate the families of soldiers still unaccounted for from World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. [5] As a genealogist, she is best known for unearthing celebrity roots, [6] conducting forensic research [7] for coroners, police departments, NCIS and the FBI, and championing the use of DNA testing to learn about one’s ancestry. [8] She researched Michelle Obama's family tree, [9] researched Annie Moore, the first immigrant through Ellis Island, [1] traced Barack Obama's roots to Moneygall, Ireland, [10] [3] [11] and discovered that Al Sharpton’s great-grandfather had been owned by relatives of Strom Thurmond. [12] She also found out that Joe Biden is "roughly five-eighths Irish". [13] She, herself, is of Irish and Rusyn heritage with roots in Ireland, Slovakia, Poland and Ukraine. Formerly Chief Family Historian for Ancestry.com, she also founded Unclaimed Persons. [14] She is nicknamed the "Indiana Jones of Genealogy". [15] She is a former board member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). [4]
Smolenyak has authored six books. She has written articles for Ancestry, Family Chronicle, Family Tree Magazine , Irish America, Genealogical Computing, Heritage Quest, NGS NewsMagazine, Everton's Family History Magazine, and APG Quarterly. Smolenyak is also a Huffington Post contributor. [6] Smolenyak conducted research and wrote the companion book for the U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are?. [16]
Smolenyak has also consulted for and appeared on CBS's The Early Show, Good Morning America , the Today Show, Top Chef (Bravo), CNN, ESPN, BBC Breakfast, African American Lives, PBS's Ancestors, TimeWatch, They Came to America, Who Do You Think You Are?,Faces of America, Finding Your Roots, NuvoTV, NPR, [17] [18] BBC Radio, and local television and radio shows, and has spoken at the National Genealogical Society, Federation of Genealogical Societies, Who Do You Think You Are Live?, Australasian Federation of Family History Organizations, and other historical, military, ethnic and literary events. [19] [20]
She was the winner of writing awards from the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors and the Bo Peep Award, given by the International Black Sheep Society of Genealogists. [21] Smolenyak was awarded the 2010 NGS Award of Merit for her work in advancing responsible genealogy to a broad popular audience. [22]
Genealogy is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. The field of family history is broader than genealogy, and covers not just lineage but also family and community history and biography.
Genetic genealogy is the use of genealogical DNA tests, i.e., DNA profiling and DNA testing, in combination with traditional genealogical methods, to infer genetic relationships between individuals. This application of genetics came to be used by family historians in the 21st century, as DNA tests became affordable. The tests have been promoted by amateur groups, such as surname study groups or regional genealogical groups, as well as research projects such as the Genographic Project.
A genealogical DNA test is a DNA-based genetic test used in genetic genealogy that looks at specific locations of a person's genome in order to find or verify ancestral genealogical relationships, or to estimate the ethnic mixture of an individual. Since different testing companies use different ethnic reference groups and different matching algorithms, ethnicity estimates for an individual vary between tests, sometimes dramatically.
Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites.
African American Lives is a PBS television miniseries hosted by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., focusing on African American genealogical research. The family histories of prominent people of African American descent are explored using traditional genealogic techniques as well as genetic analysis.
James Joseph Broderick III was an American actor. He is known for his role as Doug Lawrence in the television series Family, which ran from 1976 to 1980, and he played a pivotal role in the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon.
The family of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, is a prominent American family active in law, education, activism and politics. Obama's immediate family circle was the first family of the United States from 2009 to 2017, and are the first such family of African-American descent. His immediate family includes his wife Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha.
Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE was a large family history and genealogy event. A spin-off of the television show, the event ran annually in London, England. Since its inception in 2005 until it closed in 2017 the exhibition and surrounding events were hosted at the London Olympia and attracted 10 – 15,000 visitors per year. The show consisted mainly of exhibitions, stands and break-out sessions for individuals wishing to learn more about researching genealogy, family history and building family trees. The last event was before in 2017 before it closed permanently.
GeneTree was a family history website focused on using DNA testing to trace ancestry. A website account was free, and within their account users could order DNA tests, enter results from other testing companies, search the DNA database, create an online family tree, and correspond with family members – including sharing pictures.
Maureen Alice Taylor, born April 14, 1956, is a genealogist, author, and speaker in Providence, Rhode Island with expertise in genealogy, art history, costume history and cultural anthropology. She is a blogger, and author of many books and magazine articles. The Wall Street Journal named her the "nation's foremost historical photo detective."
Findmypast is a UK-based online genealogy service owned, since 2007, by British company DC Thomson. The website hosts billions of searchable records of census, directory and historical record information. It originated in 1965 when a group of genealogists formed a group named "Title Research". The first internet website went live in 2003.
Bennett C. Greenspan is an American businessman. His business ventures have covered industries from real estate to the .com boom. Though he has mainly worked in the fields of photography and genetic testing, he is best known for his pioneering work in genetic genealogy.
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a documentary television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS. In each episode, celebrities are presented with a "book of life" that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories, learn about familial connections and discover secrets about their lineage.
The Ontario Genealogical Society, operating as Ontario Ancestors since early 2019, is the largest organization devoted to research into family history in Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1961 as a Registered Charity corporation, the Society has grown by 2020 to include 30 local branches covering all of Ontario and five Special Interest Groups.
The International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) is an independent non-commercial nonprofit organization of genetic genealogists run by volunteers. It was founded by a group of surname DNA project administrators in 2005 to promote DNA testing for genealogy. It advocates the use of genetics in genealogical research, provides educational resources for genealogists interested in DNA testing, and facilitates networking among genetic genealogists. As of June 2013, it comprises over 8,000 members in 70 countries. As of July 2013, regional meetings are coordinated by 20 volunteer regional coordinators located in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Egypt, Ireland and Russia.
Anthony John Camp is a British genealogist and former director of the Society of Genealogists.
Cherokee descent, "being of Cherokee descent", or "being a Cherokee descendant" are all terms for individuals who have some degree of documented Cherokee ancestry but do not meet the criteria for tribal citizenship. The terms are also used by non-Native individuals who self-identify as Cherokee despite lacking either documentation or community recognition.
The ancestral background of presidents of the United States has been relatively consistent throughout American history. With the exception of Martin Van Buren and perhaps Dwight D. Eisenhower, every president has ancestors from the British Isles, which in turn makes many of them distantly related to one another. Kennedy was of pure Irish descent, Van Buren was of Dutch lineage; and Eisenhower was of German and Swiss heritage. Barack Obama is the only president to have ancestry from outside Western Europe; his paternal family is of the Luo people of East Africa. He is also believed to be a direct descendant of John Punch, a colonial-era slave born in modern-day Cameroon. Despite speculation, there is no evidence that any of the United States’ presidents have had any Indigenous American ancestry.
African American genealogy is a field of genealogy pertaining specifically to the African American population of the United States. African American genealogists who document the families, family histories, and lineages of African Americans are faced with unique challenges owing to the slave practices of the Antebellum South and North. These challenges rise from a range of events, including name changes following the American Civil War, the act of separating families for sale as slaves, lack of issued birth or death records for slaves, etc.
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