NCGS 2022 Virtual Conference

Annette Burke Lyttle

Annette Burke Lyttle owns Heritage Detective, LLC, providing professional genealogical services in research, education, and writing. She speaks on a variety of genealogical topics at the national, state, and local levels and loves helping people uncover and share their family stories. She has taught about Quaker research at the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) and following ancestral migrations for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG). She is coordinator of the Fall Virtual Intermediate Foundations course for SLIG. Her articles have been published in NGS Magazine, FGS Forum, and the APG Quarterly, among others. Annette is editor of The Florida Genealogist.

Nicka Sewell-Smith

Nicka Smith is a professional photographer, speaker, host, consultant, and documentarian with more than 20 years of experience as a genealogist. She has extensive experience in African ancestored genealogy, and reverse genealogy, and is expert in genealogical research in the Northeastern Louisiana area, and researching enslaved communities.

Nicka has diverse and varied experience in media with a background in audio, video, and written communications. She’s appeared on TODAY Show, CNN, MSNBC, was featured on an Emmy winning episode of the series Who Do You Think You Are?, and has been interviewed by Oakland Tribune, The Undefeated, National Geographic, and TIME. She is the host of BlackProGen LIVE, an innovative web show with more than 125 episodes focused on people of color genealogy and family history.

J. Mark Lowe, FUGA

J. Mark Lowe describes himself as a lifelong genealogist. He is a professional genealogist, author, and lecturer who specializes in original records and manuscripts throughout the South. Mark enjoys opportunities to share what he has learned over the years through YouTube, Webinars, and Institutes.

He serves as the Course Coordinator for ‘Research in the South’ at IGHR (Georgia) and TIGR (Texas), does Webinars for Legacy Family Tree Webinars and has worked on several genealogical television series including Finding Your Past, African American Lives 2, Who Do You Think You Are? and UnXplained Events, and provided content for podcasts on Gimlet Media, including Twice Removed.

Diane L. Richard

Diane L Richard, Mosaic Research and Project Management (MosaicRPM), www.mosaicrpm.com, has been doing genealogy research since 1987 and since 2004 professionally focused on the records of North Carolina and southern states. She regularly contributes to Internet Genealogy. She has authored over 500 articles on genealogy topics. In 2019 she published, Tracing Your Ancestors — African American Research: A Practical Guide, via Moorshead Publications. Since 2016 she has been editor of the North Carolina Genealogical Society (NCGS) Journal.

As a speaker she has delivered webinars and in-person talks about the availability and richness of records documenting southerners, pursuing formerly enslaved ancestors and their descendants, genealogical research tips, techniques, tools and strategies, under-utilized resource collections [online and on-the-ground], and much more. She has appeared on Who Do You Think You Are? (Bryan Cranston episode).

Barbara Vines Little, CG®

Barbara Vines Little, CG, FNGS, FUGA, FVGS, professional genealogist, has lectured over the past thirty years at conferences in thirty-two states on research methodology, Virginia and West Virginia resources and writing and publishing. Editor of the quarterly Magazine of Virginia Genealogy since 1996 and winner of the NGS Quarterly Award of excellence in 2001, she has written articles for a number of publications including the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, the National Genealogical Society Newsletter, the Board for Certification of Genealogists’ newsletter, OnBoard; and the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly.

Janine Cloud

Janine Cloud became interested in genealogy when a grade school assignment to complete a pedigree chart prompted her to begin questioning family members about her ancestors. She began working at FamilyTreeDNA in 2011, where she created the Group Projects team to assist Group Project Administrators and group project members. Janine is also the event coordinator, handling arrangements for all the events and conferences that FTDNA supports. She is a fifth-generation Texan, and a registered member of the Cherokee Nation.

Bernard Meisner

Bernard is a genealogist and lecturer based in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. He began researching his family over 30 years ago and enjoys sharing lessons learned from that experience, including his mistakes. Although he knew only one grandparent (his maternal grandfather) he has successfully identified all of his great-great grandparents, several triple- and quadruple-great grandparents, and his Meisner 8th great grandparents. He is a past president and current social media chair of the Mid-Cities Genealogical Society, and co-leader of the Dallas Genealogical Society’s German Genealogy Group of North Texas.

Deborah A. Abbott

Deborah A. Abbott, PhD, is a professional genealogist specializing in genealogical methodology, manuscript collections, and African American family research. She is a member of the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Archives Commission, an affiliate with the Kentucky-Tennessee Associates, past president of the African American Genealogical Society, Cleveland, Ohio, and a retired professor of Counseling from Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland. She holds both the BS and MEd degrees from Tuskegee University in Alabama and the PhD degree from Kent State University in Ohio.