Currently accepting clients for...

• Family History Research
• Speaking / Presenting

Rebecca Whitman Koford holds credentials as a Certified Genealogist^® and as a Certified Genealogical Lecturer^SM.  She focuses on research in Maryland, Upstate New York, Virginia, the District of Columbia, colonial records, military records from the Revolution through the Civil War, federal records at the National Archives (D.C.), and land records of all types. She has published articles in the NGS Magazine, APG Magazine, SAR Magazine, and the Maryland Genealogical Society Journal and is co-author of the recently released NGS Research in the States series book on Maryland. She is a graduate and former mentor of the ProGen Study Group and served as its Administrator from 2015–2020. She speaks at national conferences and regularly teaches at institutes, most recently the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG), the Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research (IGHR). She served as Executive Director of the Board for Certification of Genealogists^® from 2018–2024. In 2021, she was named as Director of the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed) in Washington, D.C. She takes clients and runs her business under the name Rebecca Whitman Koford Genealogical Research, LLC.
 

Lectures
General

• How I Built My Own Brick Wall & the Sledgehammer of Experience (Beginner)
• The Dead & The Dying: Death Records, Funeral Homes & Cemeteries (Beginning)
• Court Records: Critical Clues for Your Research (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Dig Deeper with Voter Registration Records (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Paleography Puzzles: 2 Hour Workshop (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Land Records:  Rich Resources for Relationships (Intermediate)
• Indirect Evidence: Finding What Was Not Written (Intermediate)
• Hear Them Sing!  Social History in Your Family Narrative (Intermediate)
• Defining Hope: Separating Men of the Same Name (Intermediate-Advanced)
• The Problem with Porters: Men of the Same Name (Advanced)
• Government Documents: Continental Congress, the U.S. Serial Set, and Statutes at Large (Advanced)

 
Organizational

• Project Management: Starting Off Right (Beginner)
• Research Logs: Write or Regret it! (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Writing the Family Narrative to Break Down Brick Walls (Intermediate)

 
Military Research

• Missing – Presumed Dead: A Case Study of Civil War Records (Beginner-Intermediate)
• The War of 1812: Service Records, Pensions, & Bounty Land  (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Military Pension Records: Revolution to Civil War (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Military Bounty Lands: Revolution to Mexican War (Intermediate)
• Rare Revolutionary Bounty Land Scrip Acts (Intermediate-Advanced)
• The Military District of Ohio & Federal Bounty Land Records (Intermediate-Advanced)

Locality-Specific

• State-Land State Deed Records: Understanding, Platting, & Mapping (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Understanding the Maryland State Archives (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Colonial Military Records in Maryland (Beginner-Intermediate)
• Mrs. Simmons’ Father: A Case Study of Colonial Land Records (Intermediate-Advanced)

Repositories
DAR Library, Library of Congress, National Archives, MD & PA State Archives, NARA Washington, DC

Research Time Periods

• 20th Century
• 19th Century
• 18th Century
• 17th Century

Honorifics/Credentials
CG^®, CGL^SM

Degrees
BS (Business & Management)