I Didn’t Know What I Didn’t Know! Finding the Truth about Aunt Gwen

We know we need to do reasonably exhaustive searches for information in genealogy – but do we really think about WHAT we need to research? Diana thought she knew all about her Great-Aunt Gwen – she had known her, her husband George, their daughter, and grandchildren all her life. But when someone asked her a simple family question, she discovered she didn’t have an answer. That search turned into a really interesting and eye-opening experience. Come along as this case study takes us on some unusual twists and turns – including multiple marriages, divorces, and more.

Diana Crisman Smith began researching her family in childhood, and has been researching, speaking, writing, and teaching for over 5 decades. She has particularly enjoyed researching her US, Canadian, and Danish ancestors in a wide variety of records and repositories (both in person and online), with her late husband. She is a past board member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Florida State Genealogical Society, the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and several local societies. Her work has included online courses for land records, death records, Scandinavian research, Danish research, RootsMagic software, military records, and more. She has published numerous magazine articles, a newspaper column, and is the author of 3 books (so far).  She and her husband served as lay librarians at a Family History Center (now FamilySearch Center) in Ohio for over 20 years. She has presented at conferences around the USA (in person and virtually), and at sea, and is currently enjoying “traveling” through virtual programs.

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