Video: Megan Smolenyak Interview on the Wholly Genes Cruise

I recently had a chance to interview professional genealogist Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak when we were both on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, along with 350+ other genealogists. Megan is well known in the genealogy community for her many activities: she is the Chief Family Historian at Ancestry.com, runs a DNA search service, researches the ancestry of notable people and is the author or co-author of several books on the same topics. What many people do not know is that Megan is also one of the people who created Roots Television.

Megan and I discussed a number of the number of topics, even including what life is like on a genealogy cruise. A Roots Television cameraman was available (naturally!) and recorded our conversation. If you are interested in any of her many topics, you can watch the video right now at http://rootstelevision.com/players/player_conferences.php?bctid=1323280470.

Comments

[Jayne]

I was fortunate enough to be on the 2007 Wholly Genes Cruise. Megan is such a delight!! Her lectures, "Reverse Genealogy" and "Cases That Made My Brain Hurt" were super. I enjoyed a hosted breakfast with her. It's fun to find out the speakers are regular people, just like the rest of us. :D

The week before the cruise, Megan spoke at the Delaware Genealogical Society Anniversary Dinner and, as with any place she appears, she was a big hit. You all really should purchase her books. They are great reads.

Thanks, Megan for everything you do.

Jayne
http://www.bitsofblueandgray.com/

[John]

I have just registered and I hope this blog will find its way to Megan Smolenyak. I just finished watching a tv documentary about the Monitor in the Mariners Museum Virginia. In the doco Megan was trying to trace family members of a James Fenwick, who was one of the sailors' skeletons recovered from the Monitor's turret. My wife sat up straight when Megan mentioned that James came from Scotland. My wife is a direct decendant of a Mary Fenwick from Bankfoot, Perthshire, Scotland. Mary migrated to Australia in 1855. I wonder if there could be a family connection and wether this info me be of use to Megan.

[Beth]

John, a group in Australia is researching Mary Fenwick and her family. She had a brother James who would have been 31 at the time of the Monitor sinking but we have no knowledge of him going to the U.S. Should have more information on the family tree from a New Zealand connection in a week or so.