Janet Messer was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She received a B.A. degree in Biology from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Miami. Janet held post-doctoral positions at the University of Miami and Emory University in Atlanta. She moved to Gainesville to take a research position at the Gainesville VA Medical Center and served as an adjunct faculty member in the Departments of Neuroscience and Neurosurgery at the University of Florida. Retiring from science and academia in 1998, Janet joined husband Joe in his home-based business selling and servicing power plant equipment. In the early 2000s, she became interested in genealogy after her mother received a family tree from a cousin in England she had been corresponding with. Genealogy research has been a passion doe her since then! Janet joined the Gainesville Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 2003 and transferred to the Maria Jefferson Chapter after moving to St. Augustine (to be closer to grandchildren!). Two years ago, a friend from the Gainesville DAR asked Janet to help edit a book she was planning to write on using Artificial Intelligence in genealogical research. As a total novice in the use of AI, Janet was forced to learn at least a little about it. Knowing she is still no where near an expert in AI, and certainly recognizes the limits of its use, there is no doubt AI can be a valuable resource of genealogical research.

Kate Penney Howard is a genetic genealogist and speaker specializing in endogamy and breaking down challenging research barriers with DNA. She brings decades of experience in family research and hundreds of successfully solved genetic genealogy cases. More on Kate is available on her website katepenneyhoward.com.

Brian Rhinehart is a professional genealogist and speaker and is the owner of CivilWarRecords.com. He is a graduate of Boston University’s Certificate of Genealogy Research and is a regular researcher for the television show Finding Your Roots. A direct descendant of eight Civil War soldiers, Brian specializes in research and record retrieval for Civil War and War of 1812 soldiers at the National Archives in Washington DC and has retrieved military files for hundreds of clients there.

Dave Bouchard writes researched family history books at Root & Quill in Granby, Connecticut. He traces families in the original records, such as parish registers, census pages, passenger lists and naturalization papers, and writes their stories into hardcover books with every fact cited to its source. He gives family history talks for libraries and historical and genealogical societies across the country.