Currently accepting clients for...

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

Hello!

I am a professional genealogist whose company, HoldenWorks, focuses in particular on four areas replete with brick walls -- including Jewish, Native American, African American, and Japanese ancestry. HoldenWorks is committed to helping clients solve their genealogy puzzles -- whether that takes the form of assisted research design, evaluating evidence, communicating findings, or for-hire research and reporting.

Genealogy is my second career. Prior to early retirement, I was a tenured professor of Sociology and Cultural Studies, with appointments in departments of English Literature, Media Studies, Public Policy and Political Science. During my academic career, I published three books, scores of articles in peer-reviewed journals, and served as journal editor and article reviewer.

HoldenWorks draws its strengths from my thirty year academic career, where I honed skills as: 

• lecturer
• presenter
• editor
• reviewer
• research project designer / manager
• analyst
• workshop designer / administrator
• mentor / teacher
• curriculum builder
• video / podcast creator

In particular, HoldenWorks specializes in original research, genealogical skills-building and writing. Services include: consultation on project design, independent investigation, report writing, and editing products such as research reports, narratives, case studies, and creative re-tellings of family history. Particular strengths include: devising dynamic plans of sufficient scope, source-based analysis that enable corroboration, understanding broad historical/sociological context, narrative-building, and engaging exposition.

Geographic Specialties include:

• Russia, eastern Poland, Belarus, Ukraine
• Northeastern and Western United States
• Japan

Outcomes include:

• Consulting on personal family research
• One on one mentoring / fundamental skills-building 
• Tree building
• Writing workshops
• Narrative kinship report creation / writing
• Family Book writing and printing
• Website design

We would love to assist you in developing these skills yourself, or else realizing your genealogical goals in any of these areas.
 

Geographic Specialities

• Russia, eastern Poland, Belarus, Ukraine
• Northeastern and Western United States
• Japan

Research Time Periods

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

Languages
English
(written) French
(some) Japanese
(a small amount of) Polish, Hebrew

Certificates
Certificate of Genealogical Research, Boston University
 

Degrees
BA, Social Ecology, University of California Irvine
PhD, Interdisciplinary Social Science, Syracuse University