Currently accepting clients for...

• Family History Research
• Speaking / Presenting
• Writing /Publishing

Expertise in presenting  in a variety of educational forums, from local societies or libraries, to regional conferences, to multi-session courses, both in person and virtual. Courses range from beginner "how-tos" to specialized topics and case studies. Sara is located in Western Massachusetts and primarily researches in the New York/New England region. 

Additional specialities or search keywords
Maps, Deeds, Municipal sources, Frugal research methods, Whaling

Publications/Media
Did Grandma Have a Filling Station, Greenfield Women and their Historic Businesses  with Shari Strahan, 2024.
Six Generations in Otsego, a Colman Family History, 2018.
Editor of Reflections of Boyhood at the Old Erving Schoolhouse Number 3 by Edward Jeronczyk, 2017.
NEHGS Western Massachusetts Families in 1790, Volume 4; profiles of Job Colman, Parker Dole, and Isaac Dole.
Articles: "Probate Research in Massachusetts" in NGS Magazine vol. 48, no. 2; "Millers Falls Moores, Speculators or Settlers in the Birth of an Industrial Village in Western Massachusetts" published in MASSOG, the journal of the Mass. Society of Genealogists, vol. 41, no. 3, and third place in their 2016 Writing Competition; "Trouble in a River City, the Richard Wall Family of Chicopee and Holyoke, Massachusetts" in MASSOG vol. 44, no. 2; "To Indian Territory and Back Again: The Family of Simon Leavitt Hobbs of Erving, Massachusetts" in MASSOG vol. 45, no. 2, and second place in their 2020 Writing Competition; "Good Luck or Ghostly Intervention?" in The Journal of the Cape Cod Genealogical Society, vol. 7, no. 2. 

Lectures
Using Historic Maps in Genealogical Research
Overlooked Municipal Records (Secrets of My Vault)
Land Records Can Enrich Your Research
Whaling Wife Lucy Gifford
​Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: John Erving in Colonial Boston
Did Grandma Have a Filling Station?
You Can Write (and Publish) Your Family Story
One Cotton Sock, Unfinished (Probate Research)
They Didn't Change His Name at Ellis Island
10 Tips to Jumpstart Your Genealogy
History Detectives (for children)
History Petting Zoo (for children)
Missing Persons in the Census
Researching Women's Lives
Civil War Era Case Study of Irish Immigrant Richard Wall
Blacksod Bay Assisted Irish Emigration
Irish Genealogy (3 hours)
A Polish Odyssey: Reuniting the Rzewski Family
Beyond the Shaking Leaf

Research Time Periods

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

Languages
English

Certificates
ProGen 36

Affiliations
Erving, MA Historical Commission, New England chapter of APG, Polish Genealogical Society of Massachusetts, Cape Cod Genealogical Society, Central Massachusetts Genealogical Society, Massachusetts Society of Genealogists.

Degrees
B.S. Civil Engineering, Master of Engineering, M.B.A.