Currently accepting clients for...

• Speaking / Presenting
• Writing /Publishing

 worked as a tax lawyer for 35 years before retiring from a partner-level position at EY (Ernst & Young) in 2013. I am now a Certified Genealogist® and a  Certified Genealogical Lecturer(SM).

I became a Board-certified Genealogist (no. 1065) in 2015. Beginning in 2016 I was elected to three three-year terms as a Trustee,  and served two years as Treasurer of the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG). I also served as President of BCG from 2019-2022. I am on the editorial board of both the Journal of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.

In October 2021 I was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists. Founded in 1940, ASG is the independent honorary society of the leading published scholars in the field of American genealogy, limited to fifty life-time members designated as Fellows (identified by the initials FASG).

 From 2017-2023 I served as the Registrar General of the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage, a national lineage society that honors ancestors who were enslaved in the United States. I also worked as a facilitator (teaching assistant) in the Boston University Genealogical Research Certificate Online Program (Fall 2016 through the Summer of 2019), and volunteered as a mentor for ProGen Study 37 (June 2018 through June 2019).

Services

I am primarily focused on writing and lecturing. I am available to present genealogical lectures on both genealogical methodology and researching African-ancestored families from the historical slave South. In addition to teaching at major genealogical institutes, I am available to lecture in person or virtually at local, regional, and national genealogical conferences, libraries, and societies.,

Geographic Specialties

AL, GA, NC, SC, VA, South, Raleigh, Washington, D

Publications/Media
Before ever taking a genealogy course, I authored and published three editions of my family history (The Source: The Garrett, Neely, and Sullivan Families), in addition to a 2010 Supplement to the Revised (Third) edition. I also served as the editor and principal writer of two Church histories that document the involvement of African American families that organized them: Historical Book of Bethel Hall Missionary Baptist Church, Laurens, South Carolina, 1910-2010; and Macedonia Baptist Church, Bethesda, Maryland, 1920-2011: A History of the Little Church on the Hill. Copies of all six books are in the Library of Congress, among other repositories. In 2013 I was the first place winner in the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE) Excellence in Writing Competition, in category 5 for Unpublished Material by Published Authors. My winning article was entitled Searching for the Slave Owners of Isaac Garrett: Expanding Research Beyond Online Sources, and was published in the June 2014 issue of Columns, the quarterly publication of the ISFHWE. Since then I have published peer-reviewed articles, one of which won the 2021 NGSQ award for Excellence. In 2016 I published A Guide to Researching African American Ancestors in Laurens County, SC, and Selected Finding Aids, available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Xlibris.com. An e-book is also available. A 20 November 2016 review in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution provides a great overview of how the book can be useful to researchers in other SC counties and others states: "African-American research guide is a model for others." The review in the Summer 2017 issue of the South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research noted that "this work is highly recommended as a guide for research." This book was also named as a Finalist in the African American category of the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. In 2021 NGS published the Alabama research guide that I authored.

Research Time Periods

• 20th Century
• 19th Century
• 18th Century

Honorifics/Credentials
 FASG, CG®, CGL

Certificates
Certificate in Genealogical Research (Boston University)

Affiliations
Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society-Life Membership, Association for the Study of African American Life and History- Life Member, Fairfax Genealogical Society, National Genealogical Society-Life Membership, Genealogical Institute on Federal Records Alumni Association, National Society Descendants of American Farmers, New England Historic Genealogical Society, South Carolina Genealogical Society-Laurens District Chapter,  Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage.

Degrees
LLM (Taxation), J.D. (Law), B.A. (Government)