Hodges - Hodge Society 2012 Genealogy Conference Speaker Biographies

Brent H. Holcomb – 2012 Keynote Speaker

Brent Howard Holcomb has been a professional genealogist since 1973 and has been editor of The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research since January 21, 1977. He is author or co-author of over one hundred titles on the Carolinas, including several family histories. A native of Clinton, South Carolina, he holds Bachelor of Music degree from Furman University (Greenville, South Carolina, 1972) and the M. A. degree in musicology from UNC Chapel Hill, 1975. He began speaking on genealogical topics in December of 1975, when he addressed the quarterly meeting of the Georgia Genealogical Society in Atlanta. Since that time, he has spoken all over the South from Maryland to Texas, in Colorado, on the west coast, and at several national conferences.

He has conducted advanced workshops at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) Public Library (1995 and 1998), has given lectures at the seminar conducted by the East Tennessee Historical Society in Knoxville, conducted a workshop for the Ft. Worth Genealogical Society, participated in the Summer Lecture Series for the Dallas (Texas) Public Library, frequently lectured at the South Carolina Genealogical Society workshop at the South Carolina Archives in Columbia, and lectured at the workshop of the Augusta (Georgia) Genealogical Society, Chester District (South Carolina) Genealogical Society, and many other societies around the country. On August 23, 2003, he gave a workshop for the Tennessee Genealogical Society in the Memphis Public Library. In 2006, he gave an all-day seminar for the library in Gainesville, Georgia. In May of 2009 a similar all-day workshop for the San Angelo, Texas, Genealogical Society. He was a speaker at the 2011 NGS Conference in Charleston.

He has received the NGS Award of Merit (1981), a Certificate of Appreciation from the American Society of Genealogists (1982), the Award of Merit from the South Carolina Genealogical Society (1987) and the President's Award from the South Carolina Genealogical Society (1990). On December 20, 2011, the Dallas (Texas) Genealogical Society presented him the Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award.

Jan Alpert

Janet A. (Jan) Alpert joined the National Genealogical Society (NGS) board as secretary in 2004, serving a two-year term. In 2006, she was elected president of NGS. Prior to becoming active in NGS, she had a thirty-five-year career in the title insurance industry, retiring in 2004. She served as president of the Genealogical Research Institute of Virginia (GRIVA) for five years in the 1980s. She has done personal family history research for more than twenty-five years, mostly in New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Midwest. In 1997, she published a family genealogy, Hatevil Nutter of Cover, New Hampshire, and His Descendants with Fred Boyle, CG. In addition to NGS, Jan is a member of many genealogy associations including New England Historic Genealogical Society, New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the New York History Association, as well as local genealogical organizations such a GRIVA, Tazewell County (Illinois) Genealogical Society, Hunterdon County Historical Society (New Jersey), New Hampshire Society of Genealogists, and Descendants of Ancient Windsor (Connecticut). A native of Illinois, Alpert received her BA degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara and earned an MBA degree from the University of Connecticut. She resides seasonally in Holland, Michigan, and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Robert L. Hodges

Bob is an attorney from Richmond, Virginia. Born and raised in North Carolina, he is the Lineage R1b-II (original 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 Administrator

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. In his “past life”, he worked for a major multi-national corporation, taking his family on assignments to Ireland, France and Belgium.

Terry is co-founder of WorldFamilies.net, President of the Barton Historical Society (BHS), Atlanta Area Coordinator for the International Society of Genetic Genealogy, a founding member of the Journal of Genetic Genealogy, Past President of the Genealogical Society of Cobb County, Administrator for the 300 member Barton DNA Project, and the Line Leader for the Thomas (1,2,3) Barton family of Stafford Co VA. He has been sharing his knowledge about using DNA in Genealogy for over 10 years. He speaks often in the Atlanta area and was also a speaker at the 2010 “Who Do You Think You Are” event in London, at the 2010 FGS Conference in Knoxville, at the 2nd Annual International Genetic Genealogy Conference (2005) in Washington DC, at the Georgia Genealogical Society (2008 and 2011) in Morrow, and at the 2005 Texas State Genealogical Society meeting in Lubbock.

Ron Hodges - Hodges-Hodge DNA Project Administrator

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 and studied chemistry at Southern Nazarene University (B.S.) and the California Institute of Technology (Ph.D.). He retired as a Senior Staff Chemist at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California in 2010, but has since returned as a "call-in" employee. Besides science and genealogy, Ron enjoys music and sings with the Peninsula Cantare chorus in Redwood City, California.