Member Directory

Deborah Rossi is the Conservation Technician at NEHGS. She is responsible for the conservation and repair of the Society's book and manuscript collections. Deborah received her training at the North Bennet Street School in Boston.

Jean Maguire was the Library Director at NEHGS until 2020, responsible for overseeing the Society’s library and special collections, including patron services; collection development, access, and preservation; and the Society’s volunteer program. Jean joined the NEHGS staff in 1999 after receiving her Master’s in Library and Information Science from Simmons College.

Chris Child has worked for various departments at NEHGS since 1997 and became a full-time employee in July 2003. He has been a member of NEHGS since the age of eleven. He has written several articles in American Ancestors, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, and The Mayflower Descendant. He is the co-editor of The Ancestry of Catherine Middleton (NEHGS, 2011), co-author of The Descendants of Judge John Lowell of Newburyport, Massachusetts (Newbury Street Press, 2011) and Ancestors and Descendants of George Rufus and Alice Nelson Pratt (Newbury Street Press, 2013), and author of The Nelson Family of Rowley, Massachusetts (Newbury Street Press, 2014). Chris holds a B.A. in history from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

Sally Benny joined the staff of NEHGS in 2010 and works in the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections Department. She has an M.S. in library science with a concentration in Archives Management from Simmons College. She previously worked at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Her interests include digital preservation; digitization; and genealogical research in Nantucket, Virginia, North Carolina, Cornwall, Finland, and Sweden.

Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, FASG, is associate editor of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register and editor of NEHGS’s Western Massachusetts in 1790 project. She is the award-winning author of a number of compiled genealogies, including Descendants of Peter Mills of Windsor, Connecticut; Some Descendants of Roger Billings of Dorchester, Massachusetts; Descendants of John Mills of Stamford, Connecticut; A Mills and Kendall Family History; The Pierponts of Roxbury, Massachusetts; Some Descendants of John Sibley of Salem, Massachusetts; and Descendants of Richard Coman of Salem, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. In addition, she is the author of many genealogical articles, as well as the transcriber of Hartford County Court Minutes, Vols. 3 & 4, and Colony of Connecticut Minutes of the Court of Assistants, 1669–1711.

Anne Meringolo was the Library’s Technical Services Manager until 2020, where she managed the acquisition, cataloging, and preservation of the library’s collection as well as the integrated library system and online catalog. Anne joined the staff in 2013 and was previously a librarian at Simmons College and the State Library of Massachusetts.

Marie joined the staff of NEHGS in 1987 as Business Manager, then became Chief Financial Officer in 1998, and was named Director of Library Services in 2002. She received a B.S. from Northeastern University and an MPH from Boston University. In her spare time, Marie traces her Irish ancestors. She is the past president and co-founder of TIARA (the Irish Ancestral Research Association) and has been researching, lecturing, and writing about Irish genealogy since 1976. She is particularly interested in old Irish graveyards and has transcribed the tombstone inscriptions in several Irish cemeteries in the Boston area.

Timothy Salls managed the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections Manuscripts Department, which includes the Society's manuscript collections and archives, until 2020. Tim received a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and an M.S. in Information and Library Science from Simmons College’s Graduate School of Library & Information Science with an Archives concentration.

Ralph J. Crandall is the Executive Director Emeritus of the NEHGS and is currently overseeing "Preserving New England's Records: An Initiative for Family and Local History."

A native of Connecticut, Ralph joined the NEHGS staff in 1974 as editor of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. In 1982 he was appointed Executive Director of the Society and served in that capacity until December 2005, with the exception of one year spent with his family in Thailand. Ralph received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in History at the University of Southern California. He is a member of the American Antiquarian Society, the Boston Athenaeum, the Massachusetts Historical Society, Pilgrim Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, past Recording Secretary of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, former Director of the Bay State Historical League, and formerly served on the Advisory Committee of the Boston Public Library.

In addition to his many years as editor of the Register, Ralph has published articles in a variety of publications, including Ancestry, Library Trends, and Family Chronicle. He is the author of the now-classic guidebook Shaking Your Family Tree (revised, 2001); editor of Genealogical Research in New England (1986); co-editor of Generations and Change (1985); and the contributor of “Family Types: Social Structure and Mobility in Early America: Charlestown, Massachusetts” in Changing Images in America (1979). His genealogical interests include the Crandall and Watrous families, and patterns of geographical and social mobility in early New England. Ralph and his wife Linda live in Harvard, Massachusetts, and have three daughters and three grandchildren.