Meet the Team

GenerousGenealogists is looking for Team Members!  Bring your skills and enthusiasm and join us on this adventure.

It is our hope that GenerousGenealogists outlives its founders, creators, maintainers, and carries on the tradition of generosity and giving that was begun in 1999 by Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.

Our current team membership includes:

• Mark Rabideau (always guilty of volunteering to do more than he or his family think he should) -  is the cranky old guy responsible for naming, architecting, creating, developing, and  maintaining this website. Mark keeps his Genealogical Web Home at ManyRoads and his physical abode in Franktown, Colorado. For now he is, sad to say, the benevolent dictator at GenerousGenealogists. In order to keep hearth & home, Mark, who is not lucky enough to be retired or wealthy, owns and manages two other companies, Process Enhancement Partners, Inc. and eirenicon llc.

The Brickwall Detectives! Select the button to learn more.

Brickwall Forums Moderators

• Annemarie Healy – Kalishoek- she was born in the Netherlands and lives in Ireland. Annemarie is a female Jack of all Genealogical trades and one of the moderators of this site.
• Kate Steere: Mom of three, of Philadelphia, but raised in the South; currently in Albany NY, fond of running down those misindexed folks. Family History – Kate’s story
• David Abernathy: was born and raised in Monte Vista, Colorado. Now a retired aerospace Tech Designer, living outside of Renton, Washington. Got into family research in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s, did things the hard way, had to talk to family.  In the mid 1990’s found that data was being put online and found that there was software out there. Been hooked every since.
• Vera Brierley: I was born in the 1940s in a small mining village in Yorkshire UK. I started into genealogy 38 years ago to help an auntie who wanted to know where we came from. I have had interest for all those years. Sadly, [my] auntie died and never knew the whole story.

Current Coaches & Guest Authors

• Stan Arney : is a Medically Retired (due to Multiple Sclerosis) former Municipal Court Service Clerk. He has been doing Genealogy, as a hobby, for almost 40 years, mainly on his own family surname. His goal is to make research easier, for the next person who comes along, and to assist others whenever possible. Please visit Stan at his web home!
• Jan Arnold-Blotz : is a passionate family historian with over 20 years of research under her belt. She has a strong background in United States research and is well versed in the immigration and migration patterns of Europeans in the 15th through 20th centuries. This includes some background with first settlers to the New World, The Cherokee Nation, and African American research.  Her European focus has been primarily in Switzerland and Germany, with substantial knowledge of the unique citizenship rules in Switzerland. She holds membership in The Daughters of the Revolution (DAR), The Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and The Magna Charta Dames.
• Chuck Bush: was first introduced to genealogy as a teenager while trying to earn his Genealogy merit badge in the Boy Scouts. As a teenager nobody really wants to sit and actually talk to their parents, and Chuck wasn’t looking forward to it. At first he just asked questions and wrote down their answers. These question and answer sessions eventually led to his parents telling about their lives and what it was like when they were growing up. At first it seemed like just a lot of work for a worthless little patch, little did Chuck know that it would end up being a life-long hobby. Please visit Chuck at his web home!
• Michelle Chubenko: has been researching her own family since 1990 when asked by her grandmother to trace her mother who passed away when she was only six-months old in 1922.  Since then her paternal family research has taken her from Oklahoma, back to Southwest Virginia and the Eastern Shore of Maryland while her maternal lines include Hungarian and Ukrainian ancestry.  Specialty areas are New Jersey, Galicia (Austro-Hungary), and Cherokee Research in GA & OK.  She is a member of the Genealogical Society of New Jersey, NGS, ISFHWE and Association of Professional Genealogists. Michelle is currently a member of a ProGen Study Group in preparation to submit a portfolio to the Board for Certification of Genealogists. You may visit Michelle at her web home Jersey Roots Genealogy.
• Derek S. Davey: is a professional genealogist, teacher and speaker. He has been researching his own family since 1974 when he was thirteen years old. . Specialty areas are Computer Genealogy, Civil War Research and New England Research. Derek teaches genealogy at Lourdes University, Terra Community College and summertime instructor at Lakeside Chautauqua. He is a member of the Ohio Genealogical Society, NEHGS, Genealogical Speakers Guild and Association of Professional Genealogist. However, he can research all other areas of United States by computer, libraries and archives. Please visit Derek at his web home.
• Mary Clement Douglass:  dba Historical Matters, strives to produce educational programming, and published works that are comprehensive in research, credible in content, clear in analysis and evaluation of sources, concise in writing, and coherent in presentation.
• Lynda Gear: Lynda was born in the district of Wellington, New Zealand in the late 1950s. A “white Kiwi”, I realized one day I had no idea where or whom I came from. I knew my parents and their parents had been born in New Zealand, but that was it. I’d managed perfectly well without this knowledge for nearly fifty years but almost overnight it became more important to know who I was. Please visit Lynda online.
• Sandy Johansen:  After closing her business operations consulting company; Sandy is enjoying today’s phase of retirement by devoting additional time to her avocation of genealogy.  She is currently the Vice President of the Colorado Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Advertising Manager for the APG Quarterly and the APG Member eNews.  She can be found on the APG members listings at www.apgen.org and at RootsTech2013 at the APG booth.
• Lulu Kelly : has been a hobbyist genealogist for at least twenty years. She loves to find the black sheep characters of a family and weave a story to make them come to life. Her husband’s ancestors were adventurers, rebels, outlaws and big players in Manhattan, New York, Gold hill, and Denver. Lulu likes to travel to the locations to make it a total experience. She has traveled as far as the Azores and spent time in Churches, Libraries and dusty Archives. She has unraveled many a tale often times adding to the legacy of a family. In my day to day life Lulu works as a bug Trapper for the Department of Agriculture. In her spare time she is an artist and genealogist.
• Kelly Leary : began her career as a genealogist and ancestral researcher on the day her 90-year-old grandfather made a surprising request: “Could you use your laptop to find out what had happened to my long-lost brother, George?” His query set off a yearlong search into the circumstances of George Bartholomew Leary’s death. Not only did Kelly track down the death certificate, but she also uncovered her grandfather’s heritage, tracing his roots back to Ireland in 1849. Visit Kelly at her web home.
• David Lynch: is descended from the Conrad and van Beverhoudt families in St. Croix.  Although new to genealogy, he is not new to research.  David spent 18 years as an Astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center with the Hubble Space Telescope, taught college calculus and statistics in the evenings for 20 years, and currently makes a living writing proposals for Government contracts.  He holds certifications from the Project Management Institute and the Association of Proposal Management Professonals. You may visit David at his web home 200 Years in Paradise.
• Sara Magnuson: primarily studies genealogy, history and story-telling.  She also studies plants (horticulture, botany, herb/root medicine), so the symbolism of things like the ‘family tree’ or the ‘tree of knowledge’ ring true.   Her more traditional education has been in horticulture/botany, art history and humanities. Sara is currently working through the National Genealogical Society’s graded home-study course in preparation to submit a portfolio to the Board for Certification of Genealogists. You can find Sara at her web home The Rootyard Porter.
• Kevin Ralston: Kevin started doing his own genealogy in 2007. He has worked on more than a dozen non-paid projects, volunteered with organizations like the former Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness and now GenerousGenealogists; he also volunteers as a site administrator for a non-profit web site.  You may visit him at HeritageForensics.
• Tina Sansone is the Genealogy Editor/Ebook Manager for BellaOnline.com  since 2005. She currently serves as the VP for the Tennessee Genealogical Society, SE Director of the ISFHWE, an apprentice in the Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy Mentoring Program and a GeneaBlogger.  Tina joined GenerousGenealogists because she appreciates all the help and encouragement others give her; she wants to give back in helping others discover their ancestry through research, lecture and writing.  Please visit Tina at her primary web home: BellaOnline.
• Ann Tatangelo: offers genealogical research services, specializing in researching family trees, in the province of Frosinone, Italy. Based locally, in Sora, civil and parish record searches can be performed as well as finding living relatives. Please visit Ann at her primary web home: Angel Research

Other

• Stevette the Wonder Duck: Happily lives under her rock in Colorado.  Proud mommy of Sir Augustus Lancelot Meowgie Esq, III and Thomas Tangerine Finkins.  (Yes, we have some anonymous helpers here…)