About The Genealogist's Genesis

Staff

• Beverley Crisp

  Founding Editor

  A former obituary writer for the Des Moines Register who discovered that dead people are considerably more interesting when you go back far enough. Beverley covers the absurdities of genealogical research — the surname changes that make no sense, the ancestors who lied about their ages for forty consecutive census years, the family bibles with pages suspiciously torn out. If genealogy is detective work, Beverley is writing the comedy of errors.

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  A former obituary writer for the Des Moines Register who discovered that dead people are considerably more interesting when you go back far enough. Beverley covers the absurdities of genealogical research — the surname changes that make no sense, the ancestors who lied about their ages for forty consecutive census years, the family bibles with pages suspiciously torn out. If genealogy is detective work, Beverley is writing the comedy of errors.

• Constance Pedigree

  Standards Correspondent

  Amateur genealogist who has traced her family tree back fourteen generations and still cannot explain her cousin.

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  Amateur genealogist who has traced her family tree back fourteen generations and still cannot explain her cousin.

• Declan Moriarty

  Civic Affairs Desk

  A former investigative reporter for the Cork Examiner who pivoted to genealogy journalism after a story about land disputes sent him down a property record rabbit hole he never climbed out of. Declan covers migration patterns, diaspora communities, and the political history hiding inside ship manifests. His pieces meander beautifully and always land.

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  A former investigative reporter for the Cork Examiner who pivoted to genealogy journalism after a story about land disputes sent him down a property record rabbit hole he never climbed out of. Declan covers migration patterns, diaspora communities, and the political history hiding inside ship manifests. His pieces meander beautifully and always land.

• Dr. Ephraim Stoltzfus

  Culture Columnist

  A retired demographics professor from Penn State who brings a statistician's rigor to surname distribution, migration modeling, and endogamy coefficients. Ephraim's columns are half genealogy, half applied mathematics, and include more footnotes than some peer-reviewed papers. He has been asked to tone it down. He has declined.

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  A retired demographics professor from Penn State who brings a statistician's rigor to surname distribution, migration modeling, and endogamy coefficients. Ephraim's columns are half genealogy, half applied mathematics, and include more footnotes than some peer-reviewed papers. He has been asked to tone it down. He has declined.

• Harold Sexton III

  Field Reporter

  Harold has been transcribing probate records since before the internet existed and would like you to know that. A retired county clerk from Rockingham, Virginia, he covers archival methodology, courthouse research, and the ongoing decline of penmanship in civil records. His columns read like strongly worded letters to the National Archives.

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  Harold has been transcribing probate records since before the internet existed and would like you to know that. A retired county clerk from Rockingham, Virginia, he covers archival methodology, courthouse research, and the ongoing decline of penmanship in civil records. His columns read like strongly worded letters to the National Archives.

• Keisha Okafor-Bell

  Letters Editor

  A genetic counselor turned genealogy journalist, Keisha covers the DNA beat with the intensity of someone who actually understands what a centimorgan is. She specializes in the intersection of genetic genealogy and African American family research, where paper trails go cold and spit kits become primary sources. She has opinions about your shared matches and she is correct.

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  A genetic counselor turned genealogy journalist, Keisha covers the DNA beat with the intensity of someone who actually understands what a centimorgan is. She specializes in the intersection of genetic genealogy and African American family research, where paper trails go cold and spit kits become primary sources. She has opinions about your shared matches and she is correct.

• Mallory Huang

  Institutional Memory Desk

  Mallory bought an AncestryDNA kit on Black Friday two years ago and has since built a seventeen-thousand-person tree, crashed two family reunions, and broken a sixty-year-old paternity secret. She covers the genealogy beginner beat with the terrifying competence of someone who does not know she is supposed to find this hard. Readers either love her or feel personally attacked.

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  Mallory bought an AncestryDNA kit on Black Friday two years ago and has since built a seventeen-thousand-person tree, crashed two family reunions, and broken a sixty-year-old paternity secret. She covers the genealogy beginner beat with the terrifying competence of someone who does not know she is supposed to find this hard. Readers either love her or feel personally attacked.

• Margaret Roux-Whitfield

  Weekend Editor

  Margaret has been a genealogist since 1987, holds certification from BCG and ICAPGEN, and has personally untangled more brick walls than she can count — though she has counted, and it is three hundred and twelve. She covers methodology, source citation, and the slow erosion of research standards with the tone of someone who has earned the right to be disappointed.

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  Margaret has been a genealogist since 1987, holds certification from BCG and ICAPGEN, and has personally untangled more brick walls than she can count — though she has counted, and it is three hundred and twelve. She covers methodology, source citation, and the slow erosion of research standards with the tone of someone who has earned the right to be disappointed.

• Ravi Dasgupta

  Public Records Fellow

  A contrarian cultural critic who wandered into genealogy from the history-of-science beat and immediately started asking uncomfortable questions about why the field centers Western European record systems. Ravi covers colonial archives, non-Western genealogical traditions, and the politics of who gets to have a documented past. He is not here to make friends but keeps accidentally making good points.

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  A contrarian cultural critic who wandered into genealogy from the history-of-science beat and immediately started asking uncomfortable questions about why the field centers Western European record systems. Ravi covers colonial archives, non-Western genealogical traditions, and the politics of who gets to have a documented past. He is not here to make friends but keeps accidentally making good points.

• Tomasz Kowalski-Reeves

  Copy Chief

  A software engineer at a mid-tier GEDCOM startup who writes about genealogy technology with the weary authority of someone who has seen the sausage being made. Tomasz covers database interoperability, AI-powered record matching, and why your favorite genealogy app keeps crashing. He came to genealogy through code and stays for the data problems.

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  A software engineer at a mid-tier GEDCOM startup who writes about genealogy technology with the weary authority of someone who has seen the sausage being made. Tomasz covers database interoperability, AI-powered record matching, and why your favorite genealogy app keeps crashing. He came to genealogy through code and stays for the data problems.