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

 * Monumental inscriptions, Baran Welsh Independent Chapel, Llangyfelach
 * Monumental inscriptions, Capel y Gwrhyd, Llangiwg, Glamorgan
 * Monumental inscriptions, Saraon Independent Chapel, Rhydyfro, Glamorgan
 * Material for the Genuki website
 * Material for wiki.familysearch.org

Organizations

 * Society of Genealogists
 * Guild of One-Name Studies
 * National Genealogical Society
 * ICAPGen
 * Glamorgan Family History Society
 * The Glamorgan History Society
 * Capel: The Chapels Heritage Society
 * Friends of the National Library of Wales

Lectures Presented
2000 Federation of Genealogical Societies


 * Records of the National Library of Wales in the Family History Library

2001 BYU Genealogy &amp; Family History Conference


 * Special Circumstances in Doing Welsh Research

2003 BYU Genealogy &amp; Family History Conference


 * Basic Scottich Research
 * British Chancery Records

2004 Federation of Family History Societies


 * Internet Sites for finding Emigrants from the British Isles

2005 BYU Genealogy and Family History Societies


 * Surnames in Genealogy: Problems &amp; Solutions
 * Intermediate British Research

2005 British Institute sponsored by ISBGFH


 * Beginning Welsh Research

2006 BYU Family History &amp; Genealogy Conference


 * Introduction to Welsh Research
 * Welsh Non-Conformist Records

2006 British Institute sponsored by ISBGFH


 * Intermediate Welsh Research
 * Newspapers and Periodicals

2007 British Institute sponsored by ISBGFH


 * Basic Records for Wales
 * Basic Tools for Welsh Research: Maps, Gazetteers, and Online Help
 * Pitfalls and Blessings of Tracing Welsh Ancestry
 * Strategies for Success

2008 UGA Institute


 * Welsh Court Records
 * Welsh Land &amp; Property Records
 * Welsh marriage, Burial and Monumental Inscription Indexes
 * The National Library of Wales
 * Welsh Poor Law Records
 * Preparing for a Research Trip to Wales
 * Welsh Tax Records
 * Welsh Wills and other Probate Records

My Reading List
David Russell Barnes. People of Seion: Patterns of Nonconformity in Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire in the century preceding the Religious Census of 1851. Llandysul: Gomer Press, 1995.

wiki.familysearch.org/en/Portal:Wales