Find-A-Grave can help you discover where your ancestor is buried. Connect your family using this website and other resources found online!  This presentation will show how to connect family members by effectively using the Find-A-Grave website in conjunction with resources in the Historical Record Collection and Family Tree on FamilySearch as well as resources on Ancestry.com and published tombstone transcriptions kept by local genealogical societies. We’ll follow how a German Revolutionary War veteran’s family was connected by using these resources.  Creating a memorial for someone not in the database will be discussed as well as how to create a memorial when the cemetery is unknown.  Linking family members, requesting tombstone photos, and submitting corrections to memorials will also be covered.  Learning how to use Find-A-Grave effectively can be crucial in researching your family.

Dana Palmer has been a genealogy instructor at Sinclair Community College since 2010. She became a certified genealogist (CG) in 2009, and a certified genealogical lecturer (CGL) in 2019. She has been a speaker at national, state, and local genealogy events and conferences including RootsTech (2020), NGS (2020, 2018); and FGS (2020, 2013). Her research focuses in the Midwest, specifically Ohio, but she has researched in many locations across the United States and in Germany, the U.K., and Denmark.

She has extensive knowledge of publishing family history books and editing digital photographs, and has published over 30 books for her genealogical society, clients and family.

She is currently a member in several lineage societies including I.S.D.U.P., N.S.D.A.R and U.S.D. 1812 and recently submitted an application to Colonial Dames for her ancestors and to the Mayflower Society, SAR, and others for her clients.

She served as one of the OGS Conference Co-Chairs in 2013 and again 2016 and has planned the annual Family History Jamboree in Centerville, Ohio since 2016. She has received numerous awards including: 2016 OGS Key Player; OGS outstanding chapter officer in 2012; the Tecumseh Book Award in 2010 and again in 2016; and the Salmon P. Chase Book Award in 2008 for a book she co-authored. The WCGS website she created in 2001 won best website five times of the six times she applied at the OGS annual conference (2007-2009, 2011-2012). While she was President, her chapter, the Warren County Genealogical Society, won best chapter at the OGS conference five times of the six times she applied (2007-2009, and 2011-2012).

She currently serves as Vice-President of the Martin Heiner Family Organization. She also is their research coordinator and one of their webmasters.

She loves solving problems and tracking down those elusive ancestors. If she is not busy writing books for her clients, you can probably find spending time with her husband and children.