Leading the marketing communications division for AmericanAncestors.org and NEHGS, Jim Power is a veteran of several Madison Avenue agencies and of Boston’s own Polaroid Corporation where for more than a decade he directed the marketing services division of its Latin American & Caribbean unit, headquartered in Miami, Florida.
More recently Jim was principal of a small marketing boutique firm, providing non-profits and businesses in Boston and on Cape Cod with creative marketing and public relations services. At NEHGS he directs all marketing initiatives for the organization and leads the public relations, press and conference divisions.
Jim developed a passion for researching family history with the uncovering of the story of his paternal great-grandfather, a newspaper editor and publisher in the 19th Century south. The details of that family exploration led him to the further discovery of his family’s descendance from a Revolutionary War General in 1700s Georgia, and from a Tennessee pioneer who migrated to Texas in the 1830s and became one of the Republic of Texas’ first Texas Rangers. Until recently, none of these ancestors were known to him or to his family. Their discovery reveals understanding to uncommon family names, parallels of talent and of professions, and old tin-type portraits even reveal resemblances to living family members.
NEHGS’ Director of Marketing & Sales thus claims witness to the adage that “Genealogy changes the chart, but uncovering our family history changes the heart.” To share the possibilities of that type of adventure with the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s growing membership through the marketing of the Society’s website, AmericanAncestors.org, and its many unique constituent services is the marketing division’s highest goal.
