

Trained in history (Medieval, religious, and Islamic), linguistics (historical and Semitic/Arabic), and computer science, I work in Natural Language Processing and related areas.
My projects reflect the warp and weave of my life, of my two very disparate heritages from my mother and my father's side. On my mother's side: Great Migration (1620 -1640) from the British Isles, the first wave of 18th century Scot-Irish likely from the Ulster Plantation, mystery early Southern New Jersey who may have been Dutch and Palatinate German or Swiss-German, and French and Scots-French Huguenot. On my father's side: Polish - Lithuanian - Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in the latter half of the nineteenth century, during the huge immigration of Jews from the Russian Empire.
My immigrant ancestors mostly settled in New England on my mother's side and in the Midwest on my father's side. Reflecting the diverse background of many Americans, my Anglo-Norman Protestant ancestors eventually married spouses from other Protestant sects who had fled to America due to religious persecution and for economic opportunities, such as Presbyterian Scots-Irish who arrived from the Ulster Plantation in the early 1700s, and Huguenots, as well as some mystery families who were early settlers in Southern New Jersey who may have been Dutch Reform from New Amsterdam or Palatinate German immigrants. Until late in the twentieth century, there was nary a Catholic to be found in my mother's family tree!
I have projects devoted to very early settlements in Massachusetts and Connecticut that my ancestors helped to establish, such as Roxbury and Taunton. I have projects on early ancestral families who have tens of thousands of descendants such as the family of Captain John Johnson, Richard Williams of Taunton, or the several Milford Baldwin families.
My projects reflect what I studied and the ancestry, heritage, and personal lives of close family members. My husband was Argentinian. My father was an early Beat poet and editor/founder of Beat journals. My step-father's family were early pioneers in Oregon and Colorado and his Kindred ancestor worked for George Washington at Mt. Vernon.