User:WilliamsDa

Biography
I began tracing my family history in 1983 while stationed in England with the United States Air Force. During my three years in England I visited various archives in England and Wales.

After my time in England I began studies at Brigham Young University and eventually finished a degree in Family and Community History. I started work at the Family History Library in 1991 as a British Reference Consultant. Bert Rawlins, Paul Smart and and others mentored me extending my education well beyond what was available at university. The opportunity to attend a course in Welsh family history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth under the direction of John and Sheila Rowlands helped mold my passion for Welsh family history.

I took the genealogical accreditation test for England administered by ICAPGen and after a few years of recovery took the Wales accreditation test passing it also.

In 2004 I transferred from the Family History Library to Worldwide Support where we provided suport to family historians throughout the world. Our effort to develop wiki.familysearch.org started as a tool for providing better and more efficient research support.

In the fall of 2008 I transferred to the Collection Management team where priorities are set for acquiring and publishing digital records. A reorganization in December 2009 placed me on the Content Strategy team. My responsibilities have expanded from British to a much larger portion of the world's countries. Content Strategy helps FamilySearch prioritize records based on their ability to help researchers:


 * Connect to living memory
 * Locate ancestors by geography
 * Identify ancestors uniquely
 * Trace Ancestors
 * Trace descendants

Credentials
Accredited Genealogist® in England

Accredited Genealogist® in Wales

Publications
Organizations

Lectures Presented

My Reading List

wiki.familysearch.org/en/Portal:Wales