Dan Debenham, creator and host of Relative Race, the Award-Winning Family History-Based Reality Competition Program, now in its 9th season. People from all over the country race to find their new relatives, even in Topeka!

Kathleen Brandt, international genealogist and private investigator. She has researched for TLC Who Do You Think You Are? and PBS, Finding Your Roots. She has extensive experience in DNA analysis, international and nationwide documentation retrieval, free-colored research, military record retrievals, and tracing slaves, as well as Irish, Swedish, and German records.

Debbie Gurtler graduated with honors from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in Family History. She has made research trips to Spain, Portugal, Virginia and North Carolina. Gurtler is employed by FamilySearch at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Fluent in Spanish, she can also read genealogical documents in Portuguese, Italian and French. Debbie holds four AG® credentials for the United States Mid-South region, Spain, Mexico and Portugal.

Kathy Meade is the North American representative for ArkivDigital AD AB, a company that offers online access to newly photographed color images Swedish historical records. She has been working with Swedish genealogy for more than fifteen years. Ms. Meade serves on the advisory board for the Swedish American Genealogy Research Center at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago. She volunteers at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago and the Arlington Heights Memorial Library in Arlington, Heights, Il helping patrons with their Swedish genealogical research. In a prior life, she lived and worked in Sweden and Norway for 7 years during the 90’s learning the languages.

Jenny Coss got her passion for family history research from her paternal grandmother and maternal aunt, both of whom researched family history the old-fashioned way before the internet and even before copy machines. After the death of her mother in 2010, she and her sister discovered more than 12 large tote boxes of research data, articles, photos, documents and memorabilia. During the last 10 years they digitized more than 14,000 images and preserved the originals in archival quality housing.
In addition to extensive self-study, Coss takes courses through the Museum Studies Graduate Program at the University of Kansas. She also volunteers helping small history museums and archives apply conservation principles to their collections.

Sherri Camp is the Genealogy Librarian at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library in Topeka, Kansas. There, she teaches regular classes on genealogy and organizes cultural heritage programs and conferences, promoting genealogy and family history research. She has been a genealogist for over thirty years. She has a BA History, BA Sociology, and a master’s in liberal studies with a History and Technology focus from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas; she also holds a Certificate in Genealogy from Brigham Young University.

Mrs. Camp has served as a Family History Librarian at the Family History Center in Topeka, KS for seventeen years and a Family History Consultant since 2005; She is the founding president of Kansas Network to Freedom, which educates the public on the Underground Railroad in Kansas; She chaired the 2010 Underground Railroad Conference held in Topeka and presented her original research at the 2014 Conference in Detroit, Michigan.

She is also the author of African American Topeka a book that is part of the Images of American Series published by Arcadia Publishers in 2013.  It celebrates 150 years of Topeka history. The photos of African American life in her book document the history of Topeka from its territorial days to the present.  It is an acknowledgement of the African American’s contribution to their Topeka community.

Mrs. Camp’s family came to the Topeka area during the Exodus, in the late 1800s, and settled south of Topeka, later moving into the city of Topeka, the subject of her book. She sees collecting the stories and photos for African American Topeka as an opportunity to expand the efforts that are dedicated to helping African Americans discover and document their family history, genealogy, and culture.

She is the founding and current president of the Kansas Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS) and served as the society’s National Vice President for five years and its president for two years; she teaches genealogy and history workshops and classes locally and across the country.

Sherri has taught in Topeka, in the Topeka Public schools. She is also active in the community and a member of the Topeka Alliance of Black School Educators and serves as the historian. She is also president and founder of Family Artifacts and Cultural Exchange, a research group that helps researchers of African American genealogy. She does presentations on the importance of family history research and has taught genealogy classes around the country as well as locally for local high school students. She is married, the mother of four with 12 grandchildren, including 5 bonus grands.

Barbara LaClair was first bit by the genealogy bug as a teenager, when a distant cousin shared a genealogy report that he had compiled for one branch of their family. She has been researching her family’s history for more than thirty-five years, including research of her husband’s Potawatomi roots. She is a member of the Topeka Genealogical Society, and currently serves as President of that Organization. She periodically teaches or presents on a variety of family history topics.

Phillip Baker, MD is a retired orthopedic surgeon who has lived in Topeka, Kansas, since 1970. He retired from active orthopedic surgery in 2008 and retired fully in 2015. His hobbies include genealogy, raising roses, collecting antique flow blue china, farming and reading historical biographies. He has worked on genealogy since 1998 when he purchased his first computer. In September 2007 Dr. Baker and his wife, Betty White Baker, established the Dr. Phillip and Betty Baker Genealogy Center in the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. Baker and his wife have published several works of family genealogy.

Renee Aldrich’s first experience with FamilySearch was in 1977 when she joined the LDS Church. She was assigned to be an indexer, reading old church records in Latin and German. Those were from the 1200s to the 1600s. She started doing her own FamilySearch in 1981 in Cook County, Illinois, back in the day when everything was on paper, in books and courthouses. In Des Moines, Iowa, she was assigned to be a Family History librarian. Later, in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area, she was the Family History Library Director for seven years. By this time the first computer programs for family history came out. Her family then moved to Topeka, Kansas, where they have been for the last 28 years. In Topeka, they have had various assignments for the LDS Church, some involving family history. Currently they are in church leadership callings that involve encouraging, teaching, and participating in family history activities.

Angela Bates is the organizer, founder and Interim President of the Nicodemus Historical Society. She has achieved the vision of a community organization that would collect, preserve and interpret the history of Nicodemus. Since 1988 when she first envisioned the organization, she was handed the preservation baton from her great cousin and former NFL football player Veryl Switzer. In 1996 her effort to get Nicodemus designated a unit of the National Park Service was finally achieved. After 30 years of hard work she continues to pursue efforts that contribute to her legacy as an honored steward of her hometown Nicodemus.

Kaily Carson, Curator at the National Orphan Train Complex, holds a bachelor’s degree in art history and a Museum Studies Certificate from Utah State University. She has worked in various other museums including the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art and the Utah State University Museum of Anthropology in Logan, Utah, the Minnilusa Historical Association and Journey Museum and Learning Center in Rapid City, South Dakota, and the Kirby Science Discovery Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Cindy Cruz became an avid family history researcher after retiring from a 38-year career as a public school music teacher. She researches almost every day and enjoys traveling to where her ancestors lived, worked and worshipped. Cruz currently volunteers for the Topeka Genealogical Society as an executive board member, genealogy librarian, Education Committee chair, and facilitator for the Brick Wall Special Interest Group. She was also a volunteer researcher for the Identity Quest 2020 and 2022 Genealogy Reveals.

Shari Golden is a Genealogy Reference Associate at the Midwest Genealogy Center (MGC) in Independence, Missouri. Genealogy, research and storytelling have all held her interest in one capacity or another her entire life.

Golden was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but made her home in Oklahoma, Kansas and Minnesota. She is a graduate of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Prior to MGC, Golden worked in various facets of social services for 15 years. She transitioned those skills to her work in genealogy studies related to orphans, intergenerational trauma, boarding schools, poor farms, Indigenous research, and finding female ancestors.

Golden is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, which has helped propel her studies in Indian law, treaty rights and general native cultural research. When she has time off, she appreciates spending it in nature, gardening, painting, taking photographs, traveling, listening to music, attending powwows, and learning new skills.

Lauren Gray is the Head of Reference with the Kansas Historical Society State Archives. Previously, Gray worked with the Museum of New Mexico Photo Archives and the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library in Santa Fe, New Mexico. An avid history buff, she earned her master’s degree in early U.S. History from the University of New Mexico and her bachelor’s in Creative Writing from the College of Santa Fe. Gray currently lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with her husband and a husky named Gorky.

Lori Halfhide is the National Orphan Train Complex Head Researcher. She conducts in-depth research for Orphan Train descendants and for Complex use. This research has resulted in numerous articles on Orphan Train riders published in Concordia’s Blade Empire Newspaper. Halfhide is a life member and current president of the Cloud County Genealogical Society. She is also a life member of the Cloud County Historical Society and served as vice president of that board of directors.

Lenora Lynam is the Director at the Lindsborg Old Mill & Swedish Heritage. Before this she was the archivist at the museum. Lynam grew up in Axtell, Kansas, with family ties to some of the earliest Swedish settlers of that area. She attended Bethany College in Lindsborg and earned a bachelor’s degree in History. Lynam began working for the museum soon after college. Her interest in genealogy served her well in the management of the museum’s large archives.

The archives draw people from across the country searching for their ancestors. With strong skills in Swedish genealogy Lynam enjoys helping researchers find connections both in Kansas and Sweden. She was involved with a project in 2015 to document Swedish settlement in Kansas and to make more records available to researchers.

Dr. Brent Mai has authored several books and dozens of articles on the history and culture of the Volga Germans as well as translated thousands of historical documents. He has spoken about Volga Germans at academic and genealogical conferences in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America. Mai worked with the archives that hold important documentation about the Volga Germans in Russia, Germany, Argentina, Canada and the United States.

Mai has led the descendants of Volga Germans on 11 tours to visit their former ancestral colonies in Russia. He holds degrees from Bethany College (Kansas), George Washington University, The University of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt University. He currently serves as the Dean of Libraries at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida, where he also directs the Volga German Institute (VGI). Mai’s academic focus is on the socio-economic movement of the Volga Germans over the past 260 years, and much of his research is available on the VGI website (volga.domains.unf.edu).

John Manning, the principal researcher of the Country School Genealogist LLC, has more than three decades of research experience. Retired after 40 years as a U.S. Army officer and Federal employee, Manning brings a wealth of knowledge to enrich the experience of genealogy research and family history storytelling. He writes, lectures and consults on various genealogy topics, including Irish research, military records, and immigration and naturalization records.

Manning is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). His genealogy training and education include the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), Writing Logical Proof Arguments Practicum, and attending the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed), held at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Additionally, he completed the Boston University Certificate of Genealogical Studies, the 18-month ProGen Study Group and attended numerous local, regional and national genealogy conferences.

Donna Rae Pearson received her master’s degree in History from Wichita State University and considers herself a radical historian. Her research focuses on the history of African Americans in Kansas and Historic Preservation. As a public historian Pearson firmly believes everybody has a story and the story must be told. As part of her duties as Local History Librarian at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, she is currently serving on both the City of Topeka’s Planning Commission and the Local Landmarks Commission.

She highly values participatory research projects that give underrepresented groups agency to tell their stories in the most accessible way possible. During her 20+ years of experience, Pearson has created community-driven exhibits, conducted oral history projects, developed local history workshops as well as conducted local history tours.

Recent Projects
Her presentation, “Mapping Inequality” was recently chosen to be part of the Humanities Kansas Speakers Bureau. Her recent consulting work has included Reclaiming Home, a project that focuses on the impact of Urban Renewal on the integrated Topeka community known as the Bottoms. She co-owns the historical consulting company, The Other Road, which is currently developing a walking tour of a historic African American neighborhood in Topeka. Oh! Pearson enjoys doing road trips to random spots. She doesn’t have any animals but does enjoy the company of her three children and family.

Pearson has conducted and participated in numerous community engagement and oral history projects. She has more than 10 years of experience in the museum field as well as an additional 10 years in archives management. During the past 20 years, Pearson has developed the skills to create community-driven exhibitions.

Della Regenold is a ten-year member of both the Kansas Mayflower Society and the General Society of Mayflower Descendants (GSMD). Della has served in many capacities in both organizations including past Governor of the Kansas Mayflower Society and is currently serving on the GSMD General Board of Assistants as the Deputy Governor General from the Kansas Society, the GSMD Scholarship Committee, and is the Chair of The Mayflower Quarterly Magazine which is published by the General Society and distributed to Mayflower members worldwide. Della lives in Topeka and works for a local attorney.

Martie Rison owns and operates OddfellowBooks.com, an online, antiquarian book store, with her husband. She is a contributor for Seveneightfive Magazine, and she is also the administrator for the very popular Topeka History Geeks Facebook group.

Kim Stanley moved here in 1989 to teach English at McPherson College. She was looking for a small liberal arts college on the plains, because she grew up in northwest Texas and she likes this kind of country. She met her first farmers’ kids in classes here, and she learned a lot from them. As one student told her: “In my family, we’re all farmers. We all work hard.”

Christina Valdivia-Alcala was born and raised in both Topeka’s Oakland neighborhood and a farm outside of Grantville. She grew up in a large family unit that stressed volunteerism, political involvement, and civil rights. She graduated from Hayden High School and has a B.A. from Washburn University in History with a minor in Political Science. Christina obtained her degree as a non-traditional student and in the early 1990’s she traveled to El Salvador and conducted oral history projects on the post-civil war lives of combatants.

Christina has volunteered for decades in Topeka’s Mexican American community including interviews of community elders, chaired her daughter’s Fiesta Mexicana Royalty Contest, chaired publicity on the Fiesta Mexicana planning committee and expanded arts and culture for children during Fiesta. She was a member/officer of MANA de Topeka in the early 1990’s. Valdivia-Alcala has served on the Shawnee County Civil Service Board, the Advisory Board for the Center of Latin American & Caribbean Studies at the University of Kansas and the Shawnee County Historical Society.

In 2012, Valdivia-Alcala founded the Tonantzin Society, grassroots all volunteer community organization. The Society has been responsible for numerous primary and secondary educational projects. Additionally, the organization has hosted community events in Topeka and across the state. The Society preserves and educates on Chicana/Indigenous/ Latinx art and culture with additional emphasis on social and environmental justice. One of the Society’s major programs (with Kansas public school educators, KSBE, KSDE and legislators) is Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Program for Kansas Public Schools (7-12). She currently serves as Tonantzin Society Director.

Christina lives in the Oakland community and is married, with one daughter and two grandchildren.

The Zane Sisters, Holly (Wakǫresatáhtaʔ = She Who Extends Her Paw) and Kristen (Yarónyaʔawiʔ = Voice that Floats from the Sky) are enrolled members of the Wyandot Nation of Kansas (Bear Clan), and regularly speak to groups on the culture and history of the Wyandots (and other Immigrant Tribes) in Kansas, including the Wyandots involvement in the establishment of the abolitionist town of Quindaro.

Holly Zane, JD, graduate from KU with degrees in Honors English and Law, has represented her tribe pro bono in federal litigation to preserve and protect its burial ground in Kansas City, Kansas, the Huron Indian Cemetery and has served in various roles on the tribal council. She has worked over the last decade as a human resources professional for the State of Kansas.

Kristen Zane, PE Emeritis, graduated from KU with a degree in Civil Engineering and has studied Federal Indian Law at UCLA Law School. Although Kristen is now retired, she spent her entire Engineering career in the Kansas City area and was the first minority and second woman president of the Kansas City Engineer Club. She is currently working on a grant funded project with other retired tribal members to data archive all Wyandot records throughout the U.S. and Canada and previously served as secretary of the tribal council.

The Zane Sisters can often be found at Kansas museums, libraries and historic sites, such as the Shawnee Indian Museum, Grinter House Place Museum, Old Quindaro Museum, and Fort Scott, wearing traditional Wyandot period regalia, performing as living historians of Bleeding and Civil War Kansas and demonstrating forgotten crafts, such as pine needle basket weaving, corn husk doll-making and Iroquois raised bead work.

Kansas African American Historical & Genealogical Society

Marty Flanagan completed an associate degree at Washburn University in education and completed her bachelor’s in Business Management at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Close to Retirement, Flanagan picked up the hobby of genealogy to research her family, but she wanted to prove what she had was correct. She decided to test her DNA. The rest is history.
She started teaching DNA at the Topeka Genealogical Society (TGS) six years ago. She completed a week of training with Ce Ce Moore and another week with Blaine Bettinger. Flanagan also attended a week taking DNA classes at Root Tech at Salt Lake, Utah from the experts. She has taken her genealogy to the next level, as she has proven her lines, to National Society of the Daughters of The American Revolutionary War, Colonial Dames of the 17th Century, Daughters of the American Colonies, War of 1812, Daughters of Union Vets of the Civil War and General Society Mayflower Descendants. She has found four pilgrims in celebration of 400 years of their landing in America. Flanagan’s presentations will cover DNA.