Hodges - Hodge Society 2008 Genealogy Conference Speaker Biographies

David Allen Lambert – 2008 Keynote Speaker

David has been on the staff at NEHGS since 1993 and has published articles in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register; the New Hampshire Genealogical Record; Rhode Island Roots; The Mayflower Descendant; and New England Ancestors magazine. He has published a best-selling book on cemeteries in Massachusetts, entitled A Guide to Cemeteries in Massachusetts and a photographic history of his hometown, Images of Stoughton, Massachusetts.

David’s genealogical expertise includes specialties in New England and Atlantic Canadian research, military records, and Native American and African American genealogical research. David has appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including the PBS-TV show History Detectives. He is the host of a local public access television talk show, devoted to capturing the stories of the U.S. Military veterans of the town of Stoughton, Massachusetts. He is currently authoring a book on the vital, church, and cemetery records of Stoughton from 1726 to 1900.

Nelson Hodges – President of the Hodges-Hodge Society

Nelson has been involved in studying history for 40 years, and began his own family's genealogical research 10 years ago. In 2006, based upon the connections made through the Hodges-Hodge Family DNA Project from Terry Barton, Nelson organized the first Hodges - Hodge Families Researchers for a Conference in Houston, Texas. The result of that first Conference was the formation of the Hodges - Hodge Society. Nelson has been in contact with Hodges families and closely related families around the world for many years, based upon research and results from the DNA project.

Nelson is an Architect who formed his own architectural firm in 1985, and has Offices in Dallas/Fort Worth and New York. He has had offices in Boston, Houston, Caracas, Lagos, and Albuquerque in the past. He has produced award winning designs on 5 Continents in more than 35 countries. He is an architectural historian, and is the current Chairman of the Landmark Preservation Commission of the City of Arlington, Texas

Ron Hodges - Hodges-Hodge DNA Project Coordinator

Ron became interested in genealogy after purchasing genealogy software originally solely for the purpose of making a family tree chart for his grandmother's 100th birthday celebration in 1999. Deciding to enter some names into the program, he was bitten by the "bug" and has been able to trace his Hodges ancestry to Welcome William Hodges of 18th century Virginia. In the summer of 2004, he learned about DNA testing, ordered tests from FTDNA, and set up a Hodges-Hodge project there. Almost simultaneously, Terry Barton was moving his Hodges project results to FTDNA and they agreed to combine their efforts.

Ron grew up in Kansas City, studied chemistry at Southern Nazarene University (B.S.) and the California Institute of Technology (Ph.D.), and is a Senior Staff Chemist at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California. Besides science and genealogy, Ron enjoys music and sings with the Peninsula Cantare chorus in Redwood City, California.

Shirley Hodges - Hodges Family Association

Shirley Gage Hodges has been actively doing genealogical research since 1967. She has taught genealogy classes in Community Education Programs at various high schools and has also been a guest lecturer for several Michigan State University, The Union Institute and Davenport College programs.

Shirley has presented lecturers, seminars and workshops locally and regionally both in the United States and Canada since 1994. Her lectures are accompanied by visual aids, handouts and examples.

Although Shirley specializes in tracing your female ancestors, she covers a wide variety of topics for both the novice and advanced genealogist. Her interest in sharing her love of genealogical research and her sense of humor has delighted audiences.

In 2006, Shirley was elected to the office of President of the Genealogical Speakers Guild.

Her memberships include The Association of Professional Genealogists, the National Genealogical Society and numerous state and local societies. Shirley was recently honored with the Eaton County (Michigan) Heritage Award

Shirley became a columnist for The Global Gazette in June 2006.

James Hodges – Treasurer of the Hodges-Hodge Society

Taking a serious interest in genealogy during my high-school years, I interviewed my grandparents and obtained priceless information. I inherited a fairly large photo collection from my parents, grandparents and relatives. I have a fully equipped darkroom in my house and I copied and processed old photos for my family and friends. About 10 years ago, I started working on photographs using computer applications and now I recover and repair photos regularly for friends and family using Photoshop. I volunteer at the Santa Clara City Library in the Heritage room weekly and I recover and archive their photos using Photoshop as well as help patrons with their genealogy mysteries.

Three years ago, I discovered what was to become the Hodges-Hodge Society when I had my DNA sampled. This was particularly important since my Hodges paper-genealogy went back only to my great-great grandfather. After that there was a serious disconnect. Although I haven’t overcome my paper genealogy problem, my DNA genealogy is guiding me toward accomplishments that are more fruitful.

James was born in Pueblo, Colorado in 1935, attended Centennial High School, Pueblo Junior College and Stanford University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Geology with enough extra credits for a bachelor’s degree in Engineering.

Robert L. Hodges

Bob is an attorney from Richmond, Virginia. Born and raised in North Carolina, he is the Lineage III coordinator and is descended from the Hodges family of Franklin County, Virginia. Both of his paternal great, great, great, grandparents were Hodges. He has been researching the Hodges family since 1982. He worked with the late Paul Hodges for many years on their Hodges line, and all the dead ends provided a great deal of familiarity with the Hodges in Virginia, and related families in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. He has posted frequently on the Hodges list on Rootsweb.

Terry Barton - Hodges-Hodge DNA Project Coordinator

Terry is an 8th generation Texan, who has lived in Georgia since 1973. He is an ardent family historian, an amateur genealogist, and a pioneer in the still emerging field of genetic genealogy. He treasures all of the friends he's made through genealogy, especially the "cousins" he has found.

Terry is co-founder of WorldFamilies.net, President of the Barton Historical Society (BHS) and Co-Leader of the 200+ member Barton DNA Project. He is the Line Leader for the Thomas (1,2,3) Barton family of Stafford Co VA and for the David Barton married Ruth Oldham family. He has made a number of presentations about using DNA in Genealogy, the Barton DNA project and his great-grandparent's "Barton House" and has written many articles for the BHS Newsletters and website.

Terry has been featured in several articles and interviews about his work using DNA in genealogy:

• The Genetic Genealogist, June 2, 2008 - "Interview Series III - Terry Barton" by Blaine Bettinger
• Atlanta Journal Constitution, June 2, 2005 - "DNA Testing takes genealogy to next level" by Mary Ellen Hopkins
• Marietta Daily Journal, March 16, 2005 - "Terry Barton Digs Deep to Find His Ancestors" by Lana Drucker

Robert J. Hodges

Born in Newark, NJ, Bob graduated from Union College in Schenectady, NY in 1956 with a B.S. degree in Chemistry. He then served on active duty with the US Air Force from January 1957 until October 1959, during which time he attended New York University in 1957 in a special USAF meteorology program. Afterwards then served as an Air Weather Officer at Otis AFB in MA.

Returning to civilian life, he pursued three simultaneous activities in addition to being married and raising two sons. The first was full-time employment as a research chemist, initially with Airco Research Laboratories, then Bell Telephone Laboratories and finally with Johnson & Johnson, all in NJ. At J&J, he advanced from Research Manager to Director of Product Development, and also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Ceramco, Inc., a wholly owned J&J subsidiary.

His second avenue of activity was graduate school at Seton Hall University on a part-time basis except for 1 year of residency. He received two degrees in Physical Chemistry (M.S. in 1967 and PhD in 1971). His third activity was as a member of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, from 1960 to his retirement in 1982. In the 140th Weather Flight, he progressed from a duty weather forecaster (1st Lt.) to Commander of the unit (Lt. Col.). Upon his retirement, he was promoted to full Colonel by the State of Pennsylvania.

During the last phase of his employment years, from 1980 until 1998, he was a Senior Vice President of an executive search firm, of which he was a partner, specializing in pharmaceutical R&D. Afterwards he retired fully. During his retirement years Bob has been an avid genealogist, and is in his 13th year of researching his & collateral families and publishing his Hodges-Archer Family History Newsletter (2 issues per year) and his Donahue-Morgan Family History Newsletter (1 issue per year). To stay active, he is in his third year of teaching senior citizens at Ocean County College in NJ, in the fields of early American history and Weather, Climatology & Global Warming. He also volunteers once a week in the Passenger Terminal at McGuire AFB in NJ, and enjoys skiing, golfing, swimming and bicycling on a regular basis.

Kit Stewart

Kit started tracing her Hodges genealogy while taking a “Genetics for The Non-Science Major” class at UAJ in 1978. By the end of the course, she had found over 365 new relatives, and was hooked on family history. She is a retired State of Alaska Finance Officer and for a second career obtained a MAT in Adult and Community Education from APU in 1985.

Kit has taught a variety of other subjects as well as historical research and genealogy through Community Schools, the University of Alaska, and as an independent contractor. After retiring to Sequim WA, she has given workshops and lectures and published articles on travel, land surveys, genealogical research, teaching English to adults, government records, and getting ready for Salt Lake City research.

Now, between trips around the world, she concentrates on trying to prove her 5th great-grandfather, Josiah Hodges’ ancestry. To do so, she has traced all 8 of his children down to today, identified over 4500 family members, and through DNA testing, connected to the Hezekiah Hodges family. She is currently trying to locate documents to support that connection.

The first time Kit was at the Salt Lake City Library was in 1959. Since then the Library has grown and sprawled until it can be very confusing and full of time-wasting distractions if one is not prepared ahead of time. Her PowerPoint presentation will include suggestions of what to do first, at home, as well as what to take to SLC.

Bring your own laptop and you can follow along on-line with her examples of the LDS website.