Genealogy Librarians

Sara Allen began researching her family history when she was eleven years old, using the collection of The Genealogy Center. She received her bachelor’s degree in History and Social Sciences from Wheaton College (IL). Upon graduation she worked at Buswell Memorial Library as a cataloger and reference librarian until 2006. She has her master’s degree in library and information science from Dominican University. Her first professional genealogy position began in 2006 when she became Genealogy Librarian and later Assistant Manager of Local & Family History Services at the St. Joseph County Public Library in South Bend, Indiana. She joined The Genealogy Center staff as a Genealogy Librarian in 2013. While at South Bend, she spoke and wrote on topics of genealogy and local history for libraries and societies in the Michiana area. She is currently the co-administrator of the Mitchell y-DNA project at Family Tree DNA and is involved with Unclaimed Persons, a volunteer organization that works to locate the relatives of deceased persons whose families are unknown. She is a member of the Schuyler Colfax Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her areas of interest include Indiana, the Midwest and the Upper South, 20th/21st century genealogy, and DNA for genealogical purposes, Eastern European research.

John D. Beatty, CG, has been a reference librarian in The Genealogy Center since 1984 and also serves as its principal bibliographer. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree with high honors in History from the University of Michigan in 1982, and a Master of Arts degree in History and Library Science with honors from that university in 1984. He became a Board-certified genealogist in 2014. ​He is the author of sixteen books on local and family history, including works on German and early American families, abstracts of town vital records from Biddeford, Maine, and annotated narratives from the Irish Rebellion of 1798, as well as numerous articles on a variety of genealogical and local historical topics. In 2006, he served as principal editor for volume one of a two-volume History of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Indiana, 1700-2005, the first history of Allen County produced since 1917. ​Because of a diversified family background, he has genealogical expertise in a variety of areas. He has conducted original research on families from colonial New England, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Kentucky, as well as on seventeenth and eighteenth century families from Ireland, Germany and Switzerland. He serves as archivist for the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana, and his interests also include local Fort Wayne and Allen County history.

Christina L. Clary, CA, is a native of Owensboro, Kentucky. She earned her BA in Psychology from Brandeis University and her MS in Library & Information Science from the University of Kentucky. Christina's interest in genealogy and history originated during her childhood where she avidly listened to stories about family history and lore passed down for generations. In 2015, she began her genealogy career in the Kentucky Room at the Daviess County Public Library. She has presented on topics such as intermediate genealogy research skills, finding obituaries, and interpreting deeds at the Kentucky Public Library Association Conference and the Kentucky History & Genealogy Conference. Since 2016, she has collaborated with the Owensboro Museum of Science & History in researching and writing scripts for the annual Voices of Elmwood Cemetery tour. Christina became a Certified Archivist in July 2022. Her areas of interest include Kentucky history and research, African American research, deeds, and census records, and preservation.

Logan Knight hails from Henderson, Kentucky. He graduated from Hanover College in 2010 before going on to pursue his Master’s Degree in History at Indiana State University. This was followed by an internship at the Kentucky Historical Society as well as working at the National Museum of Transportation and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation as a tour guide. Logan went on to serve as a Special Collections Librarian for more than six years at the Vigo County Public Library and received his MLS from IUPUI in the summer of 2021. While earning these degrees and working with people from all over the state, Logan discovered a real excitement for the fascinating complexities of Indiana history, particularly the early history of the state. Due to his background in history and genealogy, his interests and specialties lie in American, Indiana and Midwestern History. Logan has a passion for entwining history and genealogy to provide context to both individual and family stories. Genealogy is far more than just lines on a sheet. By using his knowledge of history, Logan hopes to make family stories come alive with historical context.

Elizabeth Hodges, a Louisiana native, is a historian, educator, and genealogist. She received her Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. While pursuing her Master’s in Irish and Irish American Studies at the New York University, she became an educator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City. Elizabeth’s love and fascination with genealogy and family history grew exponentially through sharing the stories of immigrants, migrants, and refugees who once resided in a historic tenement in lower Manhattan with visitors. Upon graduating from New York University, she began working for the New York Public Library in the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division as a page while pursuing her Master of Science in Library and Information Science from St. John’s University in New York. ​Elizabeth first began researching her own genealogy at the age of eighteen, and since then she has focused on tracing her ancestors’ journeys within southwest Louisiana, New York, Ireland, England, and beyond. While her specialties and interests lie in Irish migration/immigration, New York genealogy, the experiences of immigrant women, archival management, and Louisiana genealogy and local history, she is always eager to learn and explore other aspects of genealogy research.

Kate McKenzie is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2019, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Library Informatics from Northern Kentucky University, with a minor in history. In 2020, she received a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University and received her Master of Library and Information Science from Kent State University in 2022. ​Kate’s interest and fascination with genealogy began at a young age and she has traced her ancestors’ footsteps from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, France, and Ukraine to the midwestern United States. Her love of travel also inspires her genealogical endeavors. During her time at NKU, she had the opportunity to take her studies to France, Poland, and Ukraine, and appreciates experiencing different cultures and making connections with the places that her ancestors called home. ​Her areas of interest include research in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, local history research, as well as research in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Allison DePrey Singleton, MA, MLS, is the Genealogy Services Manager at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As Genealogy Services Manager, she provides research consultations, serves on the Center’s programming team, leads the Center’s family history webinars and educational initiatives, and oversees a team of dedicated shelvers. Allison presented at the 2022 RootsTech Connect Conference, 2021 RootsTech Connect Conference, 2020 Indiana Library Federation Virtual Annual Conference, 2020 RootsTech Conference, the 2018 Indiana Genealogical Society Conference, and various other conferences and seminars across the country. As a part of her position at The Genealogy Center, Allison was a Co-Chair of the 2018 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference. She is a Northeast Regional Co-Coordinator for the National History Day in Indiana and serves on the board both of the Indiana Genealogical Society and Indiana German Heritage Society. Allison began her genealogy research at the age of sixteen at The Genealogy Center. Since then she has been focused on the study of genealogy and archives. She traced her ancestors’ paths to Indiana from Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, France, Germany, England, and beyond. Allison’s specialties include researching in the regions of Indiana, France, and Germany, the fields of social media, and the Federal Census; teaching beginners in genealogy research; and creating and organizing genealogy programming to keep pace with the rapid technological changes in the field. Genealogy is a lifelong education that Allison passionately pursues.

Aaron Smith, lead cataloger for The Genealogy Center collection, has served both public and academic libraries in the Midwest, and brings a love of human geography to his work. His undergraduate and graduate work in music and theology has led to a desire to provide access to the songs and stories of all peoples through librarianship, and he knows that providing extensive and quality access to such stories inspires more search and discovery. To this end, he understands the importance of keeping up with rapid technological change, and works to make important genealogical resources available both digitally and in print. ​He received his Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky, and has made presentations at meetings of the Ohio Library Council and the Indiana Library Federation, as well as for The Genealogy Center. He led the Catalogers’ Interest Group of SWON (Southwest Ohio and Neighboring Libraries) from 2004 until 2007, when he joined The Genealogy Center staff in Fort Wayne.

Curt Witcher is the Director of Special Collections, managing the widely acclaimed Genealogy Center as well as the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection of Abraham Lincoln related research materials. He has worked at the Allen County Public Library for more than forty years. Curt is a former president of both the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the National Genealogical Society (NGS), and the founding president of the Indiana Genealogical Society. He is a former member of the Genealogy Committee of the American Library Association (ALA) and a past chair of the association’s History Section. He was the 2002 ALA-RUSA History Section Genealogical Publishing Company Award winner. He has penned many hundreds of articles on topics of interest to family historians, librarians and archivists, and has presented lectures to historical and genealogical groups across the country and beyond. Curt serves on the Indiana State Historical Records Advisory Board, the board of the Friends of the Indiana State Archives, and the national Records Preservation and Access Committee. Curt has been distinguished as a fellow of both the Utah Genealogical Association (FUGA) and the Indiana Genealogical Society (IGSF). He received FGS’ Rabbi Malcolm H. Stern Humanitarian Award, in 1997 and was honored in May of 2007 with NGS’ P. William Filby Award for outstanding, lifetime contributions to genealogical librarianship. Indiana’s lieutenant governor recognized Curt’s work in the summer of 2016 with a Hoosier Hospitality Award, and in August of 2018, he received the Loretto Dennis Szucs Award from FGS in recognition of his many years of dedicated service to the genealogical community. Curt is an Indiana Historical Society 2019 Eli Lilly Lifetime Achievement Award winner for his extraordinary contributions to the field of history and the Indiana Historical Society. Curt’s interests are in United States local history, migration history and settlement patterns, African American research, First Nations/Native American research, and preserving living memory.