Preservation in Action 2024: “Women in the Field”

The NYG&B is debuting a new annual series, Preservation in Action, which will spotlight leaders and trailblazers whose innovative work inspires, educates, and has a lasting impact on the genealogy and family history field.

For our inaugural year in 2024, we have chosen “Women in the Field” as our theme. The NYG&B has selected four honorees who represent particular roles in and contributions to family history:

• Rhonda Hoffman as “Partner”
• Ruth D. Hunt as “Communicator”
• Nancy V. Kelly as “Recordkeeper”
• Jane E. Wilcox as “Interpreter”

The NYG&B recognizes the impressive contributions our honorees have made—and continue to make—to the body of knowledge and preservation of family history. Throughout 2024, we will share insights from our honorees and highlight their achievements in various ways, including at a virtual panel discussion in early October.

Learn more about this outstanding cohort of honorees in “Women in the Field,” below.

Rhonda Hoffman, MLS – “Partner” Honoree

Rhonda Hoffman is the genealogy specialist at the Grosvenor Room, the special collections department at Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. With a 25-year career dedicated to public service, Rhonda frequently lectures for community groups and has been a featured presenter at the NYG&B's New York State Family History Conference. She also teaches through her writing, regularly contributing to the Western New York Genealogist and publishing articles in the New York Researcher and NGS Magazine. Rhonda loves working with library visitors, whether she's guiding genealogists to resources, offering a fresh perspective, or simply listening to family stories. Constantly seeking knowledge to share with others, she has attended numerous genealogy institutes and, in 2019, received the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records’ Richard S. Lackey Scholarship. A graduate of ProGen 57 and currently a member of ProGen Practicum 4, Rhonda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Master of Library Science degree. Rhonda volunteers as a board member and librarian for the Western New York Genealogical Society, where she has also served as president and editor of the society’s journal. 

Read a Q&A with Ms. Hoffman for insights about her work, experiences, advice for the family history community, and more.

Ruth D. Hunt – “Communicator” Honoree

A family historian and research specialist, Ruth D. Hunt is very passionate about genealogy and has been researching her family lineage for more than 40 years—tracing several branches of her family tree to the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. Through research and family interviews, she has established and created slave narratives for her 2nd great-grandparents from Southwest Virginia. Ruth’s greatest find was miraculously, locating her long-lost half-brother, born in England during WWII—long before the popularity of DNA matching and online technology. She is in the process of writing a book, The Scent of My Father, which describes the process of finding her brother Barry Hunt. Acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Defense for her personal and tireless devotion to the State of New York's veterans, Ruth created and established monthly genealogy workshops at the New York City VA hospital from 2017 until the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. Ruth is a proud member of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, one of the oldest and most prestigious of the genealogical societies in the country. She is very active in the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society as well many other organizations. Ruth is a public relations, special event, and conference consultant. She provides presentations and workshops in person and via Zoom. Learn more at www.RuthDHunt.com.

Read a Q&A with Ms. Hunt for insights about her work, experiences, advice for the family history community, and more.

Nancy V. Kelly, FGBS – “Recordkeeper” Honoree

Nancy Vogel Kelly, genealogist, public historian, and author, is a founder of Kinship genealogical publications, preserving vital records of early settlers and subsequent generations. As Rhinebeck Town Historian, Nancy led the Rhinebeck History Consortium, an initiative to digitize public and private historic records to make them available to researchers. She had a key role in preserving major collections of documents, including several 1798 manuscript maps of Alexander Thompson and the archive of Theodore Eising family of farmers and merchants. Following the retirements of Nancy and husband, Arthur Kelly, the database of Kinship is now available online under the auspices of the NYG&B. Nancy is the author of books on Rhinebeck’s history and architecture. Her insightful scholarship has been published in articles for the Hudson Valley Regional Review, the Dutchess County Historical Society, and others, and in presentations for regional and national conferences. A graduate of Cornell University with a degree in Education, Nancy is a founding member of Palatines to America N.Y. Chapter, Dutchess County Historical Society, and the Rhinebeck Historical Society. Nancy is Registrar Emeritus for the DAR Janet Livingston Chapter. In 2021, she was honored with the DAR National Award for Historic Preservation. Nancy is a NYG&B Fellow.

Read a Q&A with Ms. Kelly for insights about her work, experiences, advice for the family history community, and more.

Jane E. Wilcox, MS, FGBS – “Interpreter” Honoree

Jane E. Wilcox serves on the New York State Archives Advisory Committee and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society’s New York Family History Advisory Committee. She has authored the NYG&B’s New York State Archives Guide: For Family Historians, Biographers, and Historical Researchers [forthcoming]. A former editorial board member of the NYG&B Record, Jane speaks at genealogy institutes and national, regional, and local genealogy conferences. She also presents webinars for genealogy societies and companies and spoke at the Women's Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls and the National Archives and Records Administration in New York City. With her company, Forget-Me-Not Ancestry, in Albany, Jane specializes in colonial and early federal New York research. She hosted The Forget-Me-Not Hour podcast for more than six years, with archives at www.BlogTalkRadio.com/JaneEWilcox. She received her M.S. in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, and her B.A. in history and English literature with honors from the University of Michigan, in addition to her teacher’s certification from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Read a Q&A with Ms. Wilcox for insights about her work, experiences, advice for the family history community, and more.