Visit Main Library to learn from professional genealogists, librarians, and archivists at Family History Day. Presenters Mary Milne Jamba, Judith Cetina, Timothy Nathan Pinnick, Colleen Robledo Greene, John Baker, J. Mark Lowe, Ari Wilkins and Peggy Lauritzen will present about diverse topics of genealogical interest including AI, DNA, archives, methodology, migration, and more. This free event will offer something for beginning researchers, seasoned genealogists, and everyone in between. 

Registration is required. A boxed lunch will be provided.
 

Main Library is easily accessible by public transit. Plan your trip using Google Maps.

Parking options are available here. 

Click "Begin Registration" button below to sign up for this event.

Questions? Call 216-623-2864 or email history@cpl.org

Meet Your Speakers

John Baker has lived his entire life just a few miles from Wessyngton Plantation, a town populated by hundreds of descendants of its slaves. For more than thirty years, he has been using his research to unravel his family history and others. 

In his book Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation, he interviewed dozens of individuals ranging in age from 80-107 years old to collect their oral histories. He researched more than 11,000 documents to trace the ancestry of more than 300 African Americans enslaved on Wessyngton and the plantation owners. 

Kirkus Reviews calls John Baker’s book The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation “riveting” and The Library Journal describes it as “Fascinating…[A] moving story”. A descendant of Wessyngton slaves, John has not only written his family history but has unraveled a part of American history that is valuable to us all. 

Judith Cetina, Ph.D., Cuyahoga County archivist, is a native Clevelander and Case Western Reserve and John Carroll University graduate. As the County archivist, she is entrusted to safeguard and preserve Cuyahoga County's rich history and manage current records for county offices and agencies.  

Among the County's holdings, atlases, birth records, lists of electors, coroner case files, court files, marriage records, plat maps, real estate records, and tax records provide a wealth of material to be mined by researchers with a family connection to Cuyahoga County.  

Colleen Robledo Greene , MLIS, FTxSGS, is a librarian, genealogist, college educator, digital historian, and tech nerd. She is a nationally recognized genealogy speaker and educator specializing in methodology, Mexican & Chicano research, broader Hispanic research, libraries and archives, elearning, and technology. In 2023 the Texas State Genealogical Society conferred its honorary Fellow Award on Colleen for her “transformational impact on Hispanic research.” 

Colleen holds a Bachelor of Arts in History, a Master’s of Library & Information Science, and a certificate in genealogical research from Boston University.  She is the Digital Scholarship Librarian at California State University, Fullerton. Colleen is also a lecturer for the San Jose State University School of Information, where she teaches an online graduate-level U.S. genealogy course for future librarians and archivists, which focuses on the Genealogical Proof Standard. 

Colleen has been researching her family history since her grandfather died in 1997. Most of her personal research focuses on Mexico, California, and Texas. 

Mary Milne Jamba is an avid genealogist with more than 25 years of research experience.  

She serves as program chair of the Genealogical Committee of the Western Reserve Historical Society, DNA User Group Leader at the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group and immediate past president of the Greater Cleveland Genealogical Society 

She won the Ohio Genealogical Society William H. and Henry Harrison Award for the book “Nyland Family History and Genealogy” in 2014.  

Mary is a member of the Society of Families of the Old Northwest Territory, First Families of Ohio, Society of Civil War Families of Ohio, Settlers and Builders of Ohio, Century Families of Ohio & the Cuyahoga County Settlers and Centurions. 

Peggy Lynn Clemens Lauritzen, AG, FOGS has been involved in genealogy since before her birth.   
 
Her parents were excellent genealogists and instilled the same love of history and family in her and her three sisters.    
 
She is an expert in Ohio, mid-Southern, and Appalachian research and has written several Legacy research guides. She has been a featured writer for Reminisce Magazine and has been an instructor for Ancestry Academy. In 2018, she was elected a fellow of the Ohio Genealogical Society. 
 

J. Mark Lowe has been researching families for more than 55 years. He grew up in Tennessee with extensive family roots in Kentucky.  

As a researcher and lecturer, Lowe enjoys working with Genealogical groups and professional organizations. He was a former President of the of the Association of Professional Genealogists, former Vice President and Secretary of the Federation of Genealogical Societies,  

As a national and regional speaker, he has brought these areas of expertise along with his unique humor and southern style to many diverse audiences.  

He is the Coordinator for the IGHR (GGS- Athens GA)  Research in the South track, SLIG (UGA) Southern Research (mid-South, Gulf-South) and was awarded the Grahame T. Smallwood Jr. Award by APG in 2007, and a Lifetime Membership Award in 2019.

Mark has published articles and reviews in the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly (APGQ), SPEAK! (Genealogical Speakers Guild newsletter), The National Genealogical Society Quarterly (NGSQ), The North Carolina Genealogical Society Quarterly, The Longhunter (Southern Ky. Genealogical Society), The Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society Quarterly and other local society publications. His own publications include Robertson County Tennessee Marriage Book 2, 1859-1873 and Pioneer Cemetery (Bowling Green, Ky.)  

Timothy Nathan Pinnick is researcher, author, and national speaker on African American genealogy and co-founder of the New Hanover County Community [1898] Remembrance Project. 

He has authored articles including “Using an Extended Research Project to Reconstruct a Community” which appeared in the Association for Professional Genealogists Quarterly, “Answers in African American Newspapers” written for Family Tree Magazine, “The Carnegie Medal” in NGS Magazine, and has coauthored “From Runaways to Reunions” in Family Tree Magazine. 

Tim has delivered his historical papers at the Western Historical Association conference, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Association for African American Historical Research and Preservation, and the Illinois History Conference. Tim has served on the boards of the Association of Professional Genealogists and Federations of Genealogical Societies. 

Ari Wilkins is a genealogist, lecturer and instructor who has been actively researching family history for over twenty-five years. A graduate of Louisiana State University, Ms. Wilkins has worked at a library with one the largest and most renowned genealogical collections in the country for over a decade. She handles one-of-a-kind material, special collections, and had the opportunity to archive and digitize 18th and 19th century family Bible collections. 

As a researcher, Ari has a concentration on African American and Southern research. One of the projects she is most proud of was creating a working database and timeline of more than four hundred people enslaved in Louisiana that were documented from one slaveholding family. 

As a lecturer, Ms. Wilkins has spoken nationally at the National Genealogical Society, the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research, the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, RootsTech, and a multitude of state and local societies. In 2023, Ari was awarded the Lloyd Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award by the Dallas Genealogical Society for her outstanding contributions to the genealogical community on a national level.