Meet Our 2026
SCGS Board of Directors 

 

CBS's Roots sparked this New Orleans native's passion for genealogy. Charlotte graduated from UCLA in 1998 with a BA in Communication Studies. After a 31-year career at Pacific Bell, she retired in 2001. As Telephone Pioneers of America member, she chaired the popular Black History Month Sale-A-Bration for over 10 years. Charlotte was First Vice President fof the California African American Genealogical Society.

 

As the inaugural president of the Atwater Village Historical Society, she worked with then-City Councilperson, Eric Garcetti, to organize fundraising to begin the society.  She teaches Source Documentation 101 for Family Tree University. Charlotte is a guest genealogy lecturer for UCLA's Osher Lifelong Learning Program. A member of SCGS since 1999, Charlotte is chairperson for the education committee and organizes programs like Lunch and Learn and Genealogy Garage with the LA Public Library. She also organizes the SCGS Speakers Bureau. A favorite genealogy activity is organizing reunions for both sides of her family. 

Born and raised in Washington D.C. to parents from the Carolinas, Adrian graduated from James Madison University, Virginia, with a BS in Anthropology. He received his MBA with a specialization in accounting and finance from the University of La Verne, California. Adrian is a risk compliance auditor for a company that helps financial institutions leverage remote deposit capture (RDC) and mobile money technologies.

 

In 2012, when the itch finally could not be ignored, Adrian began his genealogical journey. He has gone from just a group of names to discover significant dates and places, along with family and local histories. Through DNA, Adrian has found new relatives. He is a member of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and several genealogical societies in Southern California, and North Carolina. Adrian is the producer and sometime-host for SCGS's popular webinar series, which is presented on the third Wednesdays of each month and some Saturdays. Speakers present diverse topics related to research methods and new discoveries in DNA. 

Barbara has been a member of SCGS for about 20 years, with 10 years volunteering as a Thursday librarian and a member of the Library Operations committee. She works on keeping the shelves organized as we add new books and remove others. She has run the Legacy Family Tree software interest group for several years and helped during Jamboree. She is a member of the German Interest and the DNA groups.  

 

Born and raised in Detroit, Barbara moved to Los Angeles in 1963. She has one son, two grandsons and six great grandchildren. She earned both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in mathematics from California State University Northridge. She did data analysis in the defense industry followed by almost 20 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working on data from an Earth-observing instrument.

 

She became interested in genealogy about 20 years ago and has done lots of work, researching back to the 1600s. As a child, Barbara spent much time with a grandmother, who enjoyed talking about her extended family. These conversations helped in following that particular branch of her family. 

Curiosity about Linda's father's side of the family piqued her interest in genealogy in 1983, and she has been an avid researcher ever since. A graduate of Burbank High School (go Bulldogs!), Linda writes a blog in which she keeps BHS alumni updated with news about former Bulldogs, teachers, and staff. Famous BHS grads include filmmaker Tim Burton, performer Debbie Reynolds, and actresses Kim Fields and Blake Lively.

 

Linda is also a military researcher, and a historian and biographer for Burbank and Glendale's war dead. In 2011, Linda was named the "Patriot of the Year" by the Glendale Chamber of Commerce. Currently, she is a member of the San Fernando Valley Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a Find-A Grave Photo Volunteer and a Vietnam Traveling Wall Docent.

 

Linda has been a SCGS Librarian and is currently a fill-in Librarian and the SCGS Historian and on the SCGS board. She has also volunteered at Jamboree in the Tech Zone. She currently serves as the Board Representative to the SCGS Library Operations committee.

An eighth-generation Ohioan, John V. Richardson was born in Columbus and is a UCLA Professor Emeritus of Information Studies where he has taught "Genealogical Information Resources" for graduate students training to become archivists and librarians. Currently, he's the FamilyTreeDNA volunteer administrator for the Richardson Project.

 

John's Die Weber Familie (ITA Press, 2020) about the Weber family who left Germany in the early 19th century won the Ohio Genealogical Society's 2021 Harrison Prize. He is a member of The General Society of Colonial Wars of the State of California, Sons of the American Revolution, and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War plus many other genealogical societies.

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In his spare time, John enjoys combining travel with family history research. He also earned a certificate in field ecology from the University of California, Riverside, to learn more about desert biology, botany, geology, and natural history.

Cathy has been a member of SCGS since 2010. She is a retired graphic designer who worked for Kaiser Permanente Southern California Regional Offices in Pasadena, doing desktop publishing and web support for 34 years. She has a BA in Design from California State University, Los Angeles.

 

Cathy's family research is focused in New Mexico going back to the 17th century and in Zacatecas, Mexico, also going to back to the 17th century. A dedicated historian, Cathy serves on the Board of Directors for Genealogical Society of Hispanic America (GSHA-SC) and is also a member of the New Mexico Genealogical Society. She also lectures on her paternal Romero family of Southern New Mexico, which has deep and fascinating roots in the region. Cathy's maternal line is from Zacatecas, Mexico. Her mother was raised in Southern California and worked in aircraft maintenance and then became a nurse's aid while raising seven children. Cathy and her family are longtime residents of Rosemead, California.

Janette Silverman is a Senior Genealogist and Research Team Manager at AncestryProGenealogists, heading up a team specializing in Eastern European and Jewish research. She had been with AncestryProGenealogists since 2015.

 

What started as a father-daughter project about 40 years ago soon took over all her spare time. From those beginnings she took on a few research projects for private clients while working full time in various capacities for organizations in the Jewish community: synagogues, Hillel, Jewish Federation, the Jewish Theological Seminary. She received a Doctorate in Jewish Studies from Spertus Institute in Chicago in 2013. The subject of her dissertation, titled “In Living Memory” was about contextualizing genealogical research from the perspective of a family’s experiences into the larger historical, social, and political environment.

 

Janette is the former chair of the Phoenix Jewish Genealogy Society, a board member of the Arizona Jewish Historical Society and the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies (IAJGS). She was lead co-chair of the IAJGS conference in Seattle in 2016, a moderator for the main JewishGen discussion group, and the chair of the JewishGen Ukraine Special Interest Group (now Ukraine Research Division).

 

Janette has written articles for many genealogy and historical journals, and recently published a book, Stories They Never Told Us. She gives presentations virtually and in-person at conferences and meetings and has been part of the team speaking on Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish research at GRIP (2020 and 2024) and SLIG (2022).

A first-generation Southern Californian, Lisa grew up in Covina and is a graduate of Cal Poly, Pomona. A longtime writer and editor, she writes for home, garden, and design websites and has been on the staffs of a newspaper, magazines, KCET, and written for the Los Angeles Times, Emmy Magazine, Westways, and the websites About.com and TheSpruce.com. She has a Certificate in Landscape Design from Saddleback College.

 

Lisa earned a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University in 2019 and is a 2021 graduate of NGS's ProGen 51. Currently, she's in the second year of the DNA Study Group with Diahan Southard. Lisa is also a member of NGS and the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG).

 

An avid researcher and history buff, her book, Lost Amusement Parks of Southern California: The Postwar Years, was published in 2021. Lisa uses DNA and documentary evidence to research the dozen family trees she manages. She has contributed research for other authors' books, including Islands Born of Fire:  Aeolians on America's Coasts by Thomasina A. Larson. Through DNA and research, she has found parents for adoptees, solved brick walls, and worked with challenging trees. While her mother's family were more recent emigrants from Western and Eastern Europe, her paternal American roots are deep and can be traced to early New York.

 

Lisa is the writer, editor, and designer for the SCGS website, newsletter, blog, and is the social media manager.

Douglas is a congressionally recognized National Historian. As owner of the Paragon Agency, he has published 150 books about America's history. Of those, he wrote one-third; 90% are first- person accounts in the form of letters, journals, diaries, memoirs and interviews. Paragon's books reach back to colonial days. Before publishing, Douglas was a teacher for 20 years, from 4th grade through college. During that time, he ran an industrial training center for a billion-dollar computer company in Tustin. He taught classes in two dozen states, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and Europe.

 

Douglas also wrote a book on the genealogy of America and published the third volume of Marie Northrop's series on Spanish & Mexican Families of Early California for SCGS in 2004. He taught at the Orange Pioneer Family Search Center and at the SCGS Library.

 

He uses genealogical information in the research for the people in his books. Douglas has an AA in Technology and a BA In Education. In 2016, he was selected for the National DAR Historian Award.

Linda’s interest in genealogy was sparked as a college student. She had the opportunity to visit Europe and was gifted the directions to her maternal great-grandmother’s birthplace in Ireland. Curious, she followed those directions on a borrowed bicycle and was rewarded by the discovery of an elderly man with the same surname, different spelling, living in a cute cottage!

Linda has continued to follow those genealogical paths, honing her research skills as an academic librarian at the University of Georgia Special Collections and the Connecticut State Library Archives, History and Genealogy department. After retiring as library dean from Glendale Community College (CA), she finally was able to document that Irish connection.

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Linda joined SCGS in 2020 and has been an active volunteer as a librarian assisting researchers and maintaining the library’s online catalog and lobby monitor. She serves on the Library OPS Committee. Linda would like to join other board members in expanding the reach of SCGS, making it more visible in the community, encouraging new members and volunteers, and enhancing its financial stability.

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Linda is a member of the National Genealogical Society and several regional societies. She has a B.A. from the University of Kansas, an MLS from Emory University, and an Ed.D from Pepperdine University.

Lyn was born in South Dakota and raised in Portland, Oregon, before moving to La Crescenta, California, in 1975. Her career as a hair stylist and business owner for over 50 years taught her problem solving and organizing skills, understanding the power of visualization, and learning through listening to people and their stories. Married to a motion picture technician who is also an avid pilot, they have three children, three grandchildren, and five great grandchildren.

 

In 2016, Lyn caught the genealogy bug when she discovered Ancestry DNA matches that were previously unknown to her. Since her retirement she has built her family tree and matched cousins by both DNA and paper trails.

 

At SCGS she is a member of the DNA and German Interest Groups and volunteers at the SCGS Library, working as a Librarian Volunteer, helping visitors with their questions and research. She is a member of the Library Operations Committee; and she looks forward to helping with the development and planning for the future of SCGS.