Mary Penner, Certified Genealogist, began documenting her family history at the age of ten and still continues to pursue her passion for genealogy. A former college and high school English teacher, she now works as a professional genealogist, writer, and editor. She is the staff genealogist for a land grant corporation, and she also works as the layout editor and is on the editorial staff for the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the scholarly journal for that organization. Mary is a qualified expert witness in the state of New Mexico.

Mary researches throughout New Mexico, solving difficult kinship problems and tracing ancestries back hundreds of years. She specializes in land grant records, Territorial, Mexican, and Colonial research, and Santa Fe Trail traders. She also has extensive research experience in Midwestern states. Research services include family history research; land grant research; legal and forensic research, including quiet title suits, probate research, missing and unknown heirs; writing biographical narratives; editing family histories; historical document analysis.

In 2013 Mary received the Grahame T. Smallwood Jr. Award of Merit from the Association of Professional Genealogists for outstanding service to the association. Mary has received research grants from the Kansas State Historical Society and the State Historical Society of Missouri. She is the former managing editor of the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly, a journal serving the needs of genealogy professionals. She has won numerous awards for her over two hundred published articles and essays about genealogy, including her award-winning genealogy column, Lineage Lessons, which appeared in the Albuquerque Tribune.

Geographic Specialities
New Mexico, Missouri, Kansas, Midwest, Rocky Mountains, Southwest, West

Additional specialities or search keywords
Court records; Hispanic; Military records; Land records

Publications/Media
Mary's award-winning genealogy column, Lineage Lessons, appeared weekly in the Albuquerque Tribune. Her articles have appeared in national publications such as Ancestry magazine, Family Tree Magazine, Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy, and Discovering Family History. She was a frequent contributor to the Ancestry Weekly Journal, an online newsletter; and she has had numerous articles published in genealogical society journals and newsletters.

Lectures
Mary has presented at the National Genealogical Society annual conference and at APG's Professional Management Conference. She has given numerous presentations for genealogical society conferences and meetings.

Repositories
Center for Southwest Research - University of New Mexico; Genealogy Center - Albuquerque Public Library; Hispanic Genealogical Research Center - Albuquerque; New Mexico State Records Center & Archives - Santa Fe; Special Collections Library - Albuquerque

Research Time Periods

• 21st Century
• 20th Century
• 19th Century
• 18th Century

Languages
Spanish

Honorifics/Credentials
CG®

Affiliations
Board for Certification of Genealogists, Association of Professional Genealogists, National Genealogical Society, New Mexico Genealogical Society, Santa Fe Trail Association, Hispanic Genealogical Research Center

Degrees
BA (English), MA (Education)