Currently accepting clients for...

• Family History Research
• Speaking / Presenting
• Writing /Publishing
• Other Speciality

I am a PhD historian and professional genealogist specializing in U.S., UK, and European family history research. My academic training allows me to approach genealogical research not simply as a search for names and dates, but through the historical events, communities, migrations, and institutions that shaped our ancestors’ lives.

Through Written Roots, I provide genealogical and historical research for clients seeking to build or verify family trees, solve focused research questions and brick walls, locate and interpret historical records, and uncover the stories behind their family history.

My areas of research include U.S., UK, and European genealogy; military service; migration and immigration; lineage society applications; and archival and documentary research. I have particular experience working with historical records that are incomplete, conflicting, difficult to interpret, or require research across multiple record sets and jurisdictions.

My background as a historian also allows me to place genealogical evidence into its broader historical context. A change in occupation, a move across a border, military service, or a family’s sudden appearance in a new community can reveal a much larger story when examined alongside the events occurring around them.

In addition to traditional genealogical research, I create researched family histories that combine documentary evidence with historical narrative. My goal is to help clients understand not only who their ancestors were, but where they lived, what they experienced, why they made certain choices, and how the world around them shaped their lives.

Publications/Media
Holter, Fiona. “Between the Two Great Battlefields”: Scottish Medical Women’s Encounters with the Eastern Front. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Mississippi, 2021.

U.S. Army Military Intelligence History Office, This Week in MI History, 2021–2022. Author of more than 30 historical articles based on archival and military-history research. Selected publications include:

• “CIC Investigation Leads to Discovery of Gold in Merkers Mine,” This Week in MI History #134 (April 2022)
• “SFC Bennie Adkins Earns Medal of Honor,” #130 (March 2022)
• “Kazuo Yamane Deploys for Special Mission,” #127 (February 2022)
• “Remembering MG William J. Donovan,” #126 (February 2022)
• “First CIC Officer Arrives at Bermuda Base Command,” #124 (January 2022)
• “PFC William James Tsakanikas Earns Distinguished Service Cross,” #119 (December 2021)
• “‘Hillbillies’ and the Hill Project at Camp Ritchie,” #107 (September 2021)
• “Archive Dive: ‘Terry and the Pirate’ and the Army CIC,” #105 (September 2021)
• “Army Assigns Nisei Linguists to Manhattan Project,” #104 (August 2021)
• “Corps of Intelligence Police Prepares for Operation in Iceland,” #100 (July 2021)

"Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the “Home of Military Intelligence,” U.S. Army, October 2021.

Lectures

“Scottish National War Memorial: Memory, Identity, and Nation Building” — Moving Monuments: History, Memory, and the Politics of Public Sculpture, Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage, 2018

“Medical Women as ‘Combatants without Weapons’ on the Fronts of the First World War” — Researching Women and the Military, National Army Museum, 2018

“Scottish National War Memorial: Memory, Identity, and Nation-Building” — Southern Conference of British Studies, 2017

“Negotiating Identity through Medicine on an International Stage: The Scottish Women’s Hospitals in the First World War” — Women and the Wider World, University of Birmingham, 2017

Repositories
National Library of Scotland — Edinburgh, Scotland
Lothian Health Services Archive, University of Edinburgh — Edinburgh, Scotland
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh — Edinburgh, Scotland
Glasgow City Archives, Mitchell Library — Glasgow, Scotland
The Women’s Library, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) — London, England
Wellcome Library — London, England
Imperial War Museums (IWM) — London, England
Liddle Collection, University of Leeds — Leeds, England
Institute of Modern Languages Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London — London, England
Blair Castle Archives — Blair Atholl, Scotland

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
Library of Congress
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), General Land Office Records
390th Memorial Museum — Tucson, Arizona
U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence (USAICoE) Archives — Fort Huachuca, Arizona

Research Time Periods

• 21st Century
• 20th Century
• 19th Century
• 18th Century
• 17th Century

Certificates
U.S. Army Military History Instructors Course, 2022

Affiliations
Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), Member

Degrees
Ph.D., History — University of Mississippi, 2021
M.A., History — University of Texas at San Antonio, 2014
B.A., History — Old Dominion University, 2010