About Me

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Lake Mathews (Perris), CA, United States
Born in Illinois, I grew up in Wilmette, a northern suburb of Chicago. I have one sibling, an older brother. I am married, for the 2nd time now, to Butch & got 4 children in the deal. They have gone on to make me grandmother 25 times over & great-grandmother to over 20!. After many years working in industry, I got my bachelors and masters degrees in speech communication, & was a professor in that field for 13 years. I retired in 2001 & returned to school & got my doctorate in folklore. Now I meld my two interests - folklore & genealogy - & add my teaching background, resulting in my current profession: speaker/author/entertainer of genealogically-related topics. I play many folk instruments, but my preference is guitar, which I have been playing since 1963. I write the "Aunty Jeff" column for the Informer, newsletter of the Jefferson County NY Gen. Soc. I work in partnership with Gena Philibert-Ortega & Sara Cochran as Genealogy Journeys® where we focus on educating folks about Social History. More about that: genaandjean.blogspot.com. More on our podcasts: genjourneys.podbean.com. More about my own projects: Circlemending.org.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Life changes

It has been a long time since I have posted to my blog; guess I am just caught up in the "stuff" of life. Actually, there has been a change in my life, so it makes sense for me to "announce" it here.

I was installed as the new president of the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists. This is going to be quite an experience for me and I am looking forward to this new role. Gena Ortega was installed as my vice president and Anne Miller as secretary. Alice Volkert will continue in her role as treasurer, which is great as, since I am new to both the office and the board, I appreciate having around someone experienced with the operation of the group to help keep me on track (and Alice is great at that).

I continue to enjoy reading the Facebook postings of my friends and family, particularly the grandkids (we can finally keep track of them!). My husband has had a number of Facebook conversations with our grandson, Chris, in Iraq, so that has been particularly special.

So I am looking at spring as meaning new beginnings in my "social" life - on and off line. Hope spring holds good things for all.