Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak

What a story! Megan Smolenyak found her husband in the form of a not-related-person of the same most unusual surname: Smolenyak. Hard to believe, but true!

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak will be the main speaker at the upcoming 11-13 September 2009 WSGS (hosted by EWGS) conference to be held at the historic Davenport Hotel.

If you are one of those (and I was) who didn't realize how really wonderful she is, I looked at her website (www.honoringourancestors.com) and copied this information for you...here are some of the genealogical things she's accomplished:

• Correcting history by revealing the true story of Annie Moore, the first immigrant through Ellis Island, a story featured on the front page of The New York Times

• Tracing Barack Obama's roots to Moneygall, Co. Offaly, Ireland (how she did it)

• Providing a decade of forensic consulting services to the U.S. Army to locate thousands of family members of soldiers still unaccounted for from WWI, WWII, Korea and Southeast Asia (see JPAC to learn more or click here to read about just one of her many cases)

• Helping Chris Haley, nephew of Alex Haley of Roots fame, use DNA testing to confirm the family's oral tradition about their ancestry and meet his Scottish cousins (watch video)

• Figuring out who would be king of America today if George Washington had been king instead of president (how she did it)

• Using her sleuthing skills to help coroners and medical examiners locate the next of kin for unclaimed persons and establishing a group of volunteers to tackle this quiet epidemic (watch video or read more about this initiative)

• Uncovering a surprising connection between presidential candidates Al Sharpton and Strom Thurmond

• Finding serial centenarians — a pair of relatives who knew each other and lived in the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries between the two of them (that's all the U.S. presidents except Washington and Obama!)

• Supporting more than 100 genealogical initiatives through her Honoring Our Ancestors Grants Program

• Tracking down relatives of the sailors who lost their lives in the USS Monitor in 1862 to try to identify skeletons found in the turret

• Playing detective to return dozens of orphaned heirlooms to their families of origin

If that doesn't whet your eagerness to come hear Megan at the conference..........well, it just should! Click on the link below to register:

Online Registration
(need help with the online registration? read our tutorial here)

Brochure and Saturday Schedule
(to help you choose your classes and activities)

Mail-in Registration Form
(for those who prefer registering offline)