SPEAKERS

We welcome our amazing group of presenters to the 21stAnnual Family History Fair in Tyler, Texas at the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center. A sincere thank you for volunteering your time so that we can still keep all of the sessions FREE and Open to the Public.

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JOHN SELLERS

Keynote Speaker

John A. Sellers is a fifth generation native of Hopkins County, Texas. He graduated from Texas Tech University, with a degree in Advertising/Public Relations and received his teaching certificate in history from Texas A&M, Commerce. He has been doing genealogical and historical research since 1985. His favorite area of research is in the courthouse. He has visited courthouses in several southern states and has conducted extensive research in Texas and Louisiana.

Bob Taylor

Bob Taylor has been actively doing family history for over 25 years. He has combined his passion for genealogy with his background in instructional design to produce an industry-leading learning resource for family history—The Family History Guide website.

Bob earned his BA degree from Brigham Young University and MA degree from California State University, Los Angeles, both in Music Education. A career change led him to instructional design and technical writing, where he has worked for large technology corporations such as Intel and Western Digital. At Intel University, he redesigned key training courses for employees and managers worldwide, as well as teaching management courses in Washington, Arizona, Oregon, California, and Utah. He has authored many online and written learning systems, helping others accelerate learning in technology, music, and family history.

Bob has been a featured presenter five times at the RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City, as well as the WikiTree International Symposium for 2022. Bob has presented at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Riverton FamilySearch Library, and the BYU Family History Conference. He has also presented to genealogical societies in fifteen U.S. states and in Canada.

Brent Chambers

Brent started his law enforcement career in 1985 in Little Rock, Arkansas, later moving to Idaho and Oregon to complete his schooling, then back to Arkansas all while continuing as a police officer. He returned to Arkansas to work at the Sheriff’s Department. He started at the FBI Academy in 1997, reported to the Dallas Field Office, working on the Public Corruption Squad. He was sent to foreign countries to investigate crimes against Americans. He and his team were called upon to respond to the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks in New York and process the Twin Towers crime scene. He was also a Team Leader who was responsible for collecting the human remains for the astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003. Brent has assisted many local, state and federal agencies in processing multiple crime scenes involving homicides, kidnappings and other violent criminal acts. He continued his career in Frisco RA and received the Federal Agent of the Year Award in 2009 for the investigation of a corrupt District Attorney who received 22 years in prison. He retired from the FBI in 2017 and immediately went to work as the Director of Public Safety at Tyler Junior College. He currently serves as the Captain of the Lindale Police Department.

Debra D. Christian

Debra D. Christian is a military brat born at Fort Riley, Kansas, and lived across the world with her parents from base to base. Debra came from a humble beginning but had ancestors of strong character. She graduated from Texas College, Tyler, Texas, an HBCU in 1977 and pledged AKA-Gamma Omicron Omega Graduate Chapter in 1984. Debra experienced a fulfilling career with Goodyear Tire Company for approximately 30 years (1977-2007), from which she retired; however, her work was not done yet. She has excelled as Director of the Christian Restoration Community Residential Care Program, Inc. (CRC), which she founded in 2007. She has acquired apprenticeship programs with both instructional as well as on-the-job training for veterans. Debra’s father,
a former combat soldier, inspired her to found the CRC upon discovering that veterans required care following their return from deployment and assimilation into civilian life. Debra has followed her heart with many other accomplishments to help veterans and especially homeless veterans at getting their lives back. She became a noted author of the book, “From Slavery to Bravery,” currently sold on Amazon. The novel depicts the life of her slave ancestors who acquired a massive amount of property in several counties in the State of Texas. It reveals a story of dedication, commitment, family, fraud, deceit, and perseverance. Some of Debra’s distinguishing accomplishments include: Current President of District 3, State of Texas American Legion Auxiliary, Current Commander – DAV – Auxiliary Unit 6, Tyler, Texas, First graduate of the State of Texas Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veteran Families, VA North TX Healthcare “Volunteer of the Year,” North TX State Hospital VA Dallas, Texas “Volunteer of the Year,” and the Second Woman of Color to ever become a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) Mollie Moore Davis 217, Tyler, Texas (2021), where she is currently the Division Chairman of the Meritorious Committee (2022).

Dorothy Franks

Founder of Texas Slave History and Inventory Preservation Projects (TexasSHIPP) a non-profit family history research organization located in Tyler, Texas. Members who serve as “working board directors” all have experience in history, or genealogy research. They represent East Texas counties that include Cherokee, Gregg, Nacogdoches, Rusk, Smith, and Upshur.

Dorothy Franks is also a coach and mentor to TexasSHIPP Center volunteers who desire to perform family history research. Her passion is breaking “brick walls” in genealogy research and rescuing names of unknown and forgotten enslaved ancestors in Texas.

Ms Franks’ vision for TexasSHIPP is to “heal legacy wounds” by uniting unknown or forgotten ancestors with their descendants who were unaware of them by their names. The “First Black Families” of Tyler-Smith County, Texas project was recently adopted and sponsored by the City of Tyler Mayor as the Black History Month event in February 2023.

Her previous projects include “Unknown No Longer: Family SLaves of Monte Verdi Plantation” of Rusk County, Texas. Her first project was unraveling unknown ancestor names of enslaved individuals in her own Holland family of East Texas.

Dorothy Franks has 30+ years of genealogy and Black history research experience.

Greg Muckleroy

Greg Muckelroy is a community historian with an interest in Black history and family genealogy. His interest in historical research started 30 years ago with the discovery of his ancestors Dawes roll applications for Cherokee citizenship. His interest expanded with information describing the Rosenwald school building program that was established in Texas and Southern states to provide decent buildings for rural Black schools.

In 2008 he started a program to design and display exhibits during Black History Month to inform his community about the accomplishments of Black Americans in East Texas. The first exhibits appeared in the Longview City Library and at events in the Longview area. These historical exhibits continued and have appeared at the Gregg County Historical Museum, the Rusk County Railroad Museum, Kilgore City Hall, Kilgore College Oil Museum and the Texas African American Museum in Tyler, Texas.

In addition to serving as a member of the Gregg County Historical Commission, he has contributed to developing Texas State Historical Marker applications for eligible African American locations and subjects and is a member of Remembering Black Dallas, an organization that applies for State historical markers for African American locations in the Dallas area.

Hannah Kubacak

Hannah Kubacak is the Genealogy Reference Librarian at the Waco McLennan Library. She is a Waco native with a life-long interest in family stories. She has worked professionally in genealogy for nine years, and as the reference librarian for the Waco

Genealogy Center since 2015. She previously taught genealogy continuing education classes at McLennan Community College and worked for the Chickasaw Nation’s Holisso Research Center.

Jim Thornhill

Jim is a native of Dallas, TX and has been chasing his roots for almost 20 years. The journey has led him through numerous conferences and institutes, courthouses, and repositories, and to a career as a Professional Genealogist. Putting people’s needs first, whether they are society members, vendors, or clients has led to success in society management and his business, Heroes of the Past.

Julia A. Anderson, MA, AG®

Julia received a B.A. Degree in History and University Honors with an emphasis in Family History from Brigham Young University in 1993 and an M.A. Degree in History and Education from Grand Canyon University in 2021. She is an Accredited Genealogist with expertise in the U.S. Gulf South Region and works full-time as a U.S./Canada Research Specialist at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. She is the owner and managing member of Anderson Genealogical Research, LLC and teaches online classes in the genealogy certificate program for Salt Lake Community College. She currently serves as the First Vice President of the Utah Genealogical Association and is a member of the Test Digitization Committee for ICAPGen.

Krystle Lindhjem

Krystle truly is multi-talented. She is an Artist and Creator at Krystle Art Texas, creating abstract art using mainly canvas or wood, acrylic paint, gold leaf, and resin. She runs her business from her home studio, while raising her 4 children with her husband, Rune. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis on Special Education and Early Childhood Education. Krystle has had a love for genealogy and family history her entire life. She grew up with her mother taking her to cemeteries on family history vacations across the country. Krystle has a love for technology and uses it to further her family history projects. She is fluent in the Norwegian language and lived in Norway for 5 years.

Larry Lewis

Larry currently works as a Regional Communications Specialist, African American Heritage, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also has a long, successful career in marketing. He has worked as a Remote Digital Marketing and Management Consultant utilizing his skills to assist clients with digital marketing development and implementation, as well as, IT operational needs.

Nancy Rangel

Nancy has served as the President and CEO of the Tyler Hispanic Business Alliance for the past 9 years. In that role, Nancy is responsible for the overall leadership of the organization, build the culture and strategies for services, finances, brand development, and relationships with stakeholders, community leaders, and partners. She graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2013 from the University of Texas at Tyler with a Master of Science Degree in Human Resource Development. Nancy was recognized in 2022 by the Women in Tyler as a “Woman with a Voice” Honoree for advocating and using voice as

power to improve and make change happen. She also serves in many leadership positions in the Tyler Community and the State of Texas, including Vice President of the Tyler ISD Hazel Owens Elementary PTA, Board Director and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee Member of State of Texas PTA, member of the Tyler Morning Telegraph Advisory Board, Board Director of the Tyler Area Business Education Council, and 2018 Graduate of Leadership Texas.

Pat Gordon

Pat Gordon’s interest in genealogy began innocently enough when she decided in the late 1980s to find where her maternal great grandmother was buried in Colorado after dying from tuberculosis. She soon found the answer to that question, but by then she had other questions that needed answering. And the questions keep coming faster and faster, much faster than the answers. Since she likes to place her ancestors in social context to their time, she does more than collect names. She spends a lot of time learning about the history and places in which they lived. In addition to online research, she spends much time hanging out in courthouses and libraries and considerable time in university archives. As a former newspaper reporter with The Dallas Morning News and recently retired journalism lecturer at the University of Texas at Arlington, she especially finds researching old newspapers a favorite pastime. She served two terms as president and one as vice president of the Fort Worth Genealogical Society. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and M.S. in Media Studies. She was an original faculty member of Angelina College Genealogy Conference in Lufkin and continues to be a frequent speaker. She has also presented all-day seminars at various Texas genealogical societies. Pat recently published a laminated quick tip sheet on Masonic Research and is working on other topics. These can be ordered from www.mygenealogybooks.com or from her.

Patti Gillespie

Patti Todd Gillespie brings energy and humor to her classes. An avid hobby genealogist for 30 years, Patti formed Family Lines & Stories, her own research company, 6 years ago. She researches for clients and speaks to groups, small and large, in and out of Texas. A former teacher of French & English, Patti very much enjoys presenting. She assisted and presented at TIGR 2019 and is currently serving on the FGS 2020 program committee. In 2019 Patti spoke at RootsTech, served as past president of Lone Star APG, and continues as a founding member and 3^rd term President of the Wise County Genealogical Society (WCGS), while serving as one of the Commissioners of Wise County Historical Commission; in 2018 she was asked to be the secretary for Texas State Genealogical Society (TxSGS). Patti has served in a multitude of leadership roles. She also attends as many conferences and watches as many webinars as possible while managing clients, husband, children, grandchildren, rescue dog and acreage in Decatur, Texas.

Patti Huff Smith

Patti is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, National Genealogical Society, Texas State Genealogical Society. She is the General Meeting Administrator & former Director of Education for the Dallas Genealogical Society. She has attended a multitude of conferences & lectures to develop her skill in Genetic Genealogy. She received her Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University, and attended Diahan Southard's 5-week DNA course. Patti worked as a marketing coordinator for ten years and nine years for motivational speaker and author Zig Ziglar as a sales representative, seminar facilitator, and speaker. Patti and her husband, Gary Smith, led marriage conferences and held leadership positions in her church for 21 years.

Paula Perkins

Paula, a 6th generation Texan, whose family history interest began when her parents took her to visit “cousins” and her maternal grandmother shared stories, photographs and letters, which she inherited. Currently serving as Collin County Genealogical Society President and eNews Editor, TxSGS District I Representative. TxSGS Early Texans DNA Chair & Project Administrator with FamilyTreeDNA and TXGenWeb volunteer county coordinator. Paula also is a guest lecturer, genetic genealogist, and has authored several articles published in genealogical society publications.

Roberto & Anna Rodriguez

Roberto and Anna met and fell in love in TEXAS of course! They love living here. They are learning about family history so they can give back to the Hispanic Spanish-speaking community by helping them learn about their families. They have a desire to teach about saving photos, documents, oral histories, and written histories of their families.

Rochell McWhorter

Rochell McWhorter is an avid FamilySearch user and currently serves as the Director of the Tyler Family History Center. She enjoys preserving "memories" such as letters, photographs, documents, audio clips, and stories of her ancestors and helps others to do the same. She recently exceeded 100,000 contributions to the FamilySearch Tree. Dr. McWhorter earned her PhD from Texas A&M University and works as an Associate Professor at The University of Texas of Tyler where she teaches business courses for undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students. She utilizes various techniques in her classroom such as visual social media, infographics, digital badges, augmented reality, and she is a champion of service-learning.

Stewart & Kimberly Wenger

This married couple is a “Power Couple!” They are both very tech savvy and are very entertaining. They are from Las Vegas but have moved to the Cedar Creek Lake area in East Texas! We are happy that they have arrived in Texas. They will be teaching the Workshop: “There’s an App for That!” So sign up and bring your phone and get ready to download apps in this 80-minute hands-on class.

The Spirits Of Oakwood

Two of the Spirits of Oakwood will be doing a presentation for the “Family History Ambassadors” (youth 11-18 years old). Jim Jones and Rhonda Reagan will be portraying two people buried at the historic Oakwood Cemetery. These historians will be dressed in period costumes and will bring these people to life as they tell their life stories. Rhonda is the event coordinator for the “Spirits of Oakwood” walking tour through the Oakwood Cemetery sponsored by the Oakwood Cemetery Restoration Committee.

Tina Mcguffin

Tina serves as the 3rd Vice President of the East Texas Genealogical Society and Family History Fair Committee Member. She wears many hats and also serves as the new Executive Director of the Harrison County Historical Museum. Tina is also a Professional Genealogist. This year, she was one of only 40 people per year selected for an invitation to participate in the Genealogical Institute of Federal Records with an intensive week of study at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

WILL YOU BE COMING?

Join us in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in East Texas to hear from industry leaders about family history!

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