Meet the Family Tree University Instructors

Learn more about the genealogy experts who guide Family Tree University’s instructor-led classes.

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Diana Crisman Smith

Diana has been researching since childhood and has served as a lay librarian at her local Family History Center for more than 20 years. She has written for numerous genealogical publications, including current regular columns in the National Genealogical Society NewsMagazine and the Association of Professional Genealogists’ APG Quarterly). Diana was a frequent contributor to Digital Genealogist and Genealogical Computing magazines, as well as penned a column that ran for two years in the Cleveland Sun Newspapers. She serves as Treasurer of the International Society … Learn More →


Tim Pinnick

Tim Pinnick

Tim Pinnick is an author, article writer and national speaker. A recognized specialist in black newspaper research and the author of Finding and Using African American Newspapers, Tim conducts workshops to standing-room-only audiences. Recently, he began writing two well received e-zines, The Black Genealogist and Black Newspaper Notes. An associate instructor in the Researching African American Ancestors course at the Samford Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, he is currently preparing a book on coal miner research for release later this year.


Sunny McClellan Morton

Sunny McClellan Morton

Sunny McClellan Morton is a writer and family historian who loves helping people tell their family stories. As a regular contributor to Family Tree Magazine, she has covered such topics as oral history, personal storytelling, genealogical self-publishing and creative ways of sharing family history with loved ones. Her own family stories appear in more than 30 scrapbooks, several magazine articles and a memoir-in-progress. Now she puts years of writing workshops and professional editing experience to work for YOU by providing personal feedback, suggestions, and encouragement … Learn More →


Allison Stacy

Allison Dolan

Allison Dolan has been on the staff of Cincinnati-based Family Tree Magazine for more than 10 years, helping evolve it from a startup publication to America’s most popular family history magazine. She’s now publisher and editorial director for the Genealogy Community at parent company F+W Media, Inc. Allison co-authored Family Tree Legacies, a keepsake family history book (with Family Tree Magazine managing editor Diane Haddad) and has contributed to several other genealogy books. Outside of Family Tree University, Allison teaches genealogy workshops for youths and … Learn More →


Midge Frazel

Midge Frazel

As a professional genealogist, educator, author and technology consultant, Midge Frazel enjoys taking photographs of gravestones and cemeteries where her ancestors rest and posting them on her blog Granite in my Blood. Midge is a native New Englander, Mayflower descendant and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She’s also a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and a charter member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits. Midge has been researching her family since she was 8 years old when her maternal … Learn More →


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Lisa Louise Cooke

Lisa Louise Cooke is the producer and host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, an audio and video genealogy show available in iTunes and online. In addition, Lisa hosts the monthly Family Tree Magazine Podcast (listen online or in iTunes) and videocasts for Family History Expos, a series of genealogy conferences. She is a national genealogy speaker, and author of the books How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers,  The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox and Genealogy Gems: Ultimate Research Strategies, as well as the Genealogy Gems … Learn More →


Sharon DeBartolo Carmack

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is a Certified Genealogist and partner in the research firm of Warren, Carmack & Associates. Along with specializing in Irish and Italian genealogical research, Sharon offers consulting, writing, editing and mentoring services for a variety of nonfiction books, with an emphasis on memoirs, biographies, family histories, personal essays, social histories and annotated letters and diaries. Sharon is the author of 16 books, including You Can Write Your Family History, a monograph on the Riggs genealogy, and hundreds of articles and columns that … Learn More →


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Charlotte Marie Bocage

Charlotte Marie Bocage is a full-time professional genealogist with more than four decades of experience. Growing up, a nagging question was in her mind: “Who are my ancestors?” The oral history passed on by her mother was the basis for her research, and the 1977 TV series “Roots” inspired her to formally begin her genealogy to answer that question. Charlotte is the Bocage family genealogist and historian, and has traced her paternal family back to 19th-century Louisiana. The names in her family database were published … Learn More →


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Lisa A. Alzo

Eastern European genealogy specialist Lisa A. Alzo received the Association for Women in Slavic Studies 2002 Mary Zirin Prize for excellence in scholarship, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International. Her books include Three Slovak Women (Gateway Press), Slovak Pittsburgh (Arcadia) and Cleveland Slovaks (with John T. Sabol, Arcadia). She’s written numerous articles for genealogy publications, including regular contributions to Family Tree Magazine, and blogs regularly at The Accidental Genealogist. A genealogist for 20 years, Lisa has taught genealogy … Learn More →