Yes, she has two last names–and they’re both the same–but she’s earned them. Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak is one of the leading experts on genealogy and what’s being termed genetealogy–the use of DNA to further genealogical research–in the country. She’s the author of “Honoring Your Roots” and “Trace Your Roots with DNA.” And she’ll be the guest speaker at the 30th anniversary of the Delaware Genealogical Society on Sunday, October 22, at the Brandywine Country Club.
For amateur ancestor hunters, Smolenyak has the star power of Brangelina.
Smolenyak of Haddonfield, NJ, is the researcher who discovered that the woman who was thought to be the “little Annie Moore” of Ellis Island fame was actually not the right girl. (Annie is the 15-year-old Cork native who was the first to pass through the new immigration center in 1892 and who is memorialized by two statues, one in Ireland and the other on Ellis Island.) The real Annie Moore, Smolenyak discovered, did not move to Texas as was thought; she never left New York, and died there after marrying a German immigrant and bearing 11 children.
The event costs $33 per person and you must make reservations by October 13. Go to www.delgensoc.org.