Gaia Cloutier is Project Archivist at American Ancestors and NEHGS. She is responsible for the processing and description of the Reinier Beeuwkes III Family Collection. Gaia graduated from Simmons University with dual Master of Library and Information Science and Master of Arts in History degrees in 2019. Her thesis concerned cookbooks and gender in Post-War England. Gaia formerly worked as a Processing Intern for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
Brittany Contratto was the Digital Projects Archivist for the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center at New England Historic Genealogical Society until 2020. She managed the Center’s digital projects, its social media, and its digitization efforts. Brittany received a B.S. in Historic Preservation with a Museum and Archives concentration and minors in Archaeology and Anthropology from Southeast Missouri State University. She earned her M.A. in Historical Administration from Eastern Illinois University and her M.S. in Library and Information Science with a concentration in Archives Management from Simmons University.
Jen Shakshober earned a dual BA in English and Economics from Westfield State University, an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Bennington College, and a certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. She is currently pursuing an MLIS in Archives Management from Simmons University. Her past research has involved nineteenth and twentieth-century Vermont records from local and state-level repositories. Most recently she wrote two articles about the murder of labor organizer Joseph Shoemaker for The Walloomsack Review, a biannual publication of the Bennington (Vt.) Museum, and she is always interested in crafting narrative genealogical reports.
Eric G. Grundset has conducted genealogical research since the late 1970s. He served as Library Director for the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., for 33 years and retired at the end of 2017. The author of numerous articles in genealogical publications, with a focus on transcriptions of unusual Virginia records, Eric is also the editor of volumes on Virginia record abstracts, atlases of historical Virginia county boundary changes, source guides on the American Revolution for most of the original states published by the DAR, and an NGS guide to Virginia research. A lecturer at national, regional, state, and local genealogical conferences and events since the early 1980s, Eric has shared his knowledge of sources and techniques for research in Virginia, New York, and other states. His own research concentrates on Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D. C., Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and areas in Norway. Beginning his genealogical studies with the “inherited” work of a great-aunt in Richmond, Va., and grandmothers with long memories who lived to be 102 and 95, Eric knows that despite over 40 years of work, there is still much more to do in all of his areas of interest.
A native of Brookline, Massachusetts, Don has been fascinated with family history since a young age starting with Don’s father telling him of a great-great-grandfather named Christopher and knowing only he lived near Malone, New York, served in The Civil War and was wounded. The mystery behind Christopher is what pushed Don to seriously start researching his family and over the past decade has discovered roots in Saint Lawrence County, NY; Northumberland County, New Brunswick, Canada; numerous counties in Ireland, and Brookline.
Nordahl L. Brue of Delray Beach, Florida, is a lawyer and entrepreneur currently serving as Chairman of Northbridge Investments LLC. He is best known as a founder of Bruegger’s Bagels, which today runs approximately 300 bakery-cafes in 24 states and the District of Columbia. He is a Life Member and former Chair of Grinnell College’s Board of Trustees, a former Chair of PKC Corporation and Franklin Foods, serves on the boards of Green Mountain Power Corporation and NNEEC, and is a former member of the Vermont State Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors. A member of NEHGS since 2002, Nord is a past Councilor and Life Member.
Olga Tugarina, originally from Kharkov, Ukraine, was the NEHGS Library Collection Services Assistant until 2020. She received her B.A. in Metallurgical Engineering at Kharkov Polytechnical Institute. She emigrated from Ukraine to America in 1997. In 2016 Olga started her family genealogy, based on her own recollections. Her interests: Arts.
Raymond earned his BA in History from Stonehill College. During his time there he worked as an archivist's aide. He took roles in digitizing record collections and in preserving and restoring 19th century business ledgers. Prior to working with NEHGS, he worked with the Cambridge Public Library as a circulation librarian. He began studying his own genealogy as a hobby and quickly started showing library users how they could explore the field for themselves. In addition to his genealogical interests, Raymond enjoys being active in his free time and is an avid tennis player.
Michael Grow, a retired history professor at Ohio University and a longtime NEHGS member, is the author of John Grow of Ipswich, Massachusetts and Some of His Descendants: A Middle-Class Family in Social and Economic Context From the 17th Century to the Present (Amherst, Mass.: Genealogy House, 2020).