Save the Date: Southeast Family History Expo

Welcome to the Southeast Family History Expo. We are excited to offer a one day conference of genealogy and family history classes, DNA sample testing, and door prizes sponsored by the Savannah Georgia Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Heritage Library Foundation, Inc., Live Oak Public Libraries, Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, and the Savannah Area Genealogical Association. We have an excellent sampling of lecturers who are well known in their specialities and will offer interesting lectures and presentations to help genealogy researchers gain more knowledge and supporting interest in family history. Whether yo are a beginner or come with experience in genealogy you will find Southeast Family History Expo to be exciting and stimulating.

8:30 - 9:00 Opening

9:00 - 10:30

Darius A. Gray
Author and Lecturer

Darius co-hosted "Questions and Ancestors" a weekly radio/television series focused on genealogy questions submitted by the broadcast audience. He also participated in the highly acclaimed, PBS family history series, "Ancestors," and was involved in the KUED documentary, "Utah's African-American Voices."

Perhaps his greatest genealogical accomplishment was as co-director of the project to organize and save to CD the "Freedman's Bank Records." This genealogy treasure contains the marriage, birth and family records of more than 480,000 freed slaves from the 1860's and has offered breakthroughs for countless African Americans seeking to trace their family roots.

Darius is the coauthor, along with Margaret Blair Young, of the Standing on the Promises trilogy and also co-producer with Mrs. Young of the recently released documentary, "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons."

Margaret Blair Young
Author, Creative Writing Instructor

Margaret Young teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. She has written six novels, three of them with Darius Gray. She has also written two short story collections and numerous essays. She and her husband, Bruce, have four children and three grandchildren.

Scott R. Woodward, PhD
Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer
Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation

Scott Woodward, a former Professor of Molecular Biology at Brigham Young University, received his Ph.D. degree in genetics from Utah State University in 1984. He did postdoctoral work in molecular genetics at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Utah. While at the University of Utah he discovered a genetic marker used for the identification of carriers and the eventual discovery of the gene for cystic fibrosis. He was also involved with the identification of other gene markers for colon cancer and neurofibromatosis. He joined the faculty at BYU in 1989. While at BYU he has been involved with the Seila, Egypt excavation team, directing the genetic and molecular analysis of Egyptian mummies, both from a commoners' cemetery and of the Egyptian Royal mummies. His research interests include the reconstruction of ancient and modern genealogies using DNA techniques with samples from all over the world, the tracing of human population movements by following gene migrations (including both Old and New World populations) and the DNA analysis of ancient manuscripts including the Dead Sea Scrolls. His work at Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation has been focused around building a comprehensive database that includes genetic and genealogical data from over 100,000 individuals from across the entire world with the goal of demonstrating the close connectedness of all people in the world. His work has been featured both nationally and internationally on numerous programs including Good Morning America, and the Discovery, History and Learning Channels.

Jan Alpert
President of the National Genealogical Society

Janet A. Alpert (Jan) retired in 2004, after a 35-year career in the insurance industry. She and her husband, Cal Beltman, a native of Holland, Michigan, now reside seasonally in Holland, Michigan, and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Ms. Alpert is President of the National Genealogical Society, a position she has held since 2006. The society supports family history research through education, publications and conferences. She is a speaker at national genealogical conferences and she teaches classes for beginning family history researchers in South Carolina. Ms. Alpert has done personal family research for more than 25 years mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. She is a member of many national and local genealogy associations.

A native of Illinois, Ms. Alpert received her B.A. degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara and earned an M.B.A. degree from the University of Connecticut.

Bill Altstaetter
The Heritage Library Foundation, Inc.

Bill Altstaetter is a Past-President of The Heritage Library Foundation, Inc. retiring in 2008 after eight years as President. One of three founding members Bill was instrumental in the formation in July, 1997 of the library and center for the study of genealogy and history. Bill continues to serve as a consultant to the Foundation and co-chairs the Continuing Education program activity.

His lifelong passion for things historic, coupled with his interests in the origins of his family led naturally to his involvement in history in general and to that of the Lowcountry in particular when he arrived permanently on Hilton Head Island in 1994. He and his wife, Gwen, reside in Indian Springs at Hilton Head Plantation.

One of several Vice Presidents with financial management responsibilities, Bill retired from Rockwell International Corporation after twenty-nine years of service, having held various administrative and management positions at both division and corporate levels for the company. Bill is a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter and holds an Associate in Risk Management diploma from the American Institute of Property Casualty Underwriters.

A native of Sandusky, Ohio Bill grew up on the south shore of Lake Erie. He served in the United States Army from 1949 to 1951 prior to graduating from The Ohio State University.

Howard D. Wright
Executive Director
Sankofa Business Solutions, Inc.

The Sankofa Restoration Project, Inc. is an advocacy group for the accurate conveyance of the story of African people throughout the world. We are Griot [An African expression for a master story-tellers]. And therefore we have formed our research under our Department of Griotology.

We are dedicated to the proposition that African of all cultures, languages and spiritual persuasions are in effect the best suited to tell their own story. The United States Colored Troops Headstone initiative Project is one of the latest projects set in motion for us to provide an ongoing vehicle designed to bring us closer to our expressed goal.

For more details on Howard's work see the Island Packet article at:

http://www.islandpacket.com/opinion/columns/thatsthat/story/922651.html

Charlie Bourland
Author and Instructor

A graduate of Yale University and a retired management consultant Charlie Bourland lives in Savannah, Georgia. He has been researching his families since 1995. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Mayflower Society, the Jamestown Society, the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) and numerous County, Surname and related groups.

For several years he has been teaching a 12-hour course entitled "Getting Started in Genealogy" at the Lifelong Learning Institute at Armstrong Atlantic State University, the Skidaway Community Institute and The Marshes of Skidaway.

He has written 6 family history books which can be found in the Genealogical Society of Utah Library, the New England Historic and Genealogical Society (NEHGS), the New York Public Library, and the Allen County Public Library (IN).

Sharen Lee
Reference Librarian

Sharen Lee was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her interest in genealogy began with the family stories told by her grandparents in Tennessee. After high school she moved to California where she completed a bachelor's degree at Pepperdine. Soon afterwards Sharen entered library school at the University of Missouri at Columbia. Following graduation, she worked for two years as the reference librarian for a local newspaper and radio station.

In 1975 an opportunity opened up to follow another strong interest. Sharen's elder brother was legally blind. She studied rehabilitation teaching for blind adults (similar to occupational therapy) at Western Michigan University. That degree led to a teaching position in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. After teaching for 14 and 1/2 years, it physically became too much. In May 1990, Sharen returned to library work when she took a reference librarian's job at the Bull Street Library. During the early years, SAGA member and library staff person Hallie Fling taught her more about how to do genealogy. For almost 20 years Sharen has enjoyed helping library patrons search for their ancestors.