Susan Burneson
- Family History Research
- Writing /Publishing
- Family History Research
- Author/Writer
- Editor
For more than 25 years, Susan has provided professional research and creative services to family and community historians, authors (print and web), lawyers (including serving as an expert witness and providing research for heirship hearings), history and nonprofit organizations (including the Austin Community Foundation, Preservation Austin, and Texas Supreme Court Historical Society), and media production companies (including the genealogy television series “Who Do You Think You Are?”). Susan received the Texas State Genealogical Society Writing Award, First Place, in Category II: Books by a Professional / Family History for the book Heart of Texas: Life Stories of Richard Davis Hardin with Coleen Grant Hardin. Susan and her husband, Rob, received the Texas Oral History Association Mary Faye Barnes Award for Excellence in Community History Projects for their film A Community Mosaic. Susan's community history project Voices of the Violet Crown includes a website (violetcrownvoices.com), oral history interviews, three films, community and history exhibits and companion booklet, and feature articles. Susan helped found two Austin nonprofits and is a longtime community volunteer. She and her husband have organized five family reunions and produced two family history videos, including Winkel/Schuessler Reunion and Homes Tours in 2021.
Services
Professional genealogy, archive research, writing and editing, digital imaging, book and exhibit design, oral history interviews, community histories, and web production.
Geographic Specialties
United States—Midwest (including Illinois and Missouri), South (including Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia), and Southwest (including New Mexico).
United States—Midwest (including Illinois and Missouri), South (including Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia), and Southwest (including New Mexico).
Susan is careful, tenacious, gracious, time-considerate, and creatively curious. Give her good instructions, the gist of your topic, and a specific search objective, and she will find the exact item or the next best thing. She tackles her research assignments like a writer, a historian, and a social scientist. Her initial research is through her computer to save time in the library, then she will dig through archive collections quickly and efficiently." - Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. "Through careful research, combining historic photographs, music, home movies, and dozens of interviews, the film A Community Mosaic is a valuable historical resource that leaves a priceless legacy for future generations." - Texas Oral History Association, upon presentation of the Mary Faye Barnes Award for Excellence in Community History Projects.
Include: Heart of Texas: Life Stories of Richard Davis Hardin and Coleen Grant Hardin (book); A Green History of Brentwood and Crestview (publication); From Abercrombie to the Violet Crown (booklet); "'Moving Beyond the Interview' in Louisville" (article), Oral History Association Newsletter; "Just What is a Violet Crown?" (article); "History of Hancock Creek/Arroyo Seco" (article); "Esperanza - An Early Travis County School" (article).
The Art of Oral History," multimedia presentation and lecture, Thomas Baker Slick Memorial Library, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas.
Austin History Center and Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Austin, in addition to extensive online research.
- 21st Century
- 20th Century
- 19th Century
English
Association of Professional Genealogists (national and Lone Star chapters), Austin Film Society, Texas Oral History Association
Bachelor of Journalism, College of Communications, The University of Texas at Austin