Curt B. Witcher
Wednesday, 01 April at 1:30 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.
Curt B. Witcher is the Manager for The Genealogy Center of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN where he has worked for more than twenty-eight years. He also serves as the Curator of that institution’s Rare and Fine Book Collection and the Project Manager for Genealogy and Local History Digital Initiatives. He received his B.A. in history and English, and his M.L.S. in Library and Information Science from Indiana University.
Curt is a member of the Genealogy Committee of the American Library Association, a past chair of the association’s History Section, the convener of the association’s Genealogy and Local History Discussion Forum, and a participant in other genealogical and historical committees of that organization. He is a former president of both the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society. He is the founding president of the Indiana Genealogical Society and has memberships in a number of historical and genealogical organizations in the state and country.
Curt participated for more than a decade in Indiana University's Continuing Education Program as an adjunct professor, teaching courses on beginning genealogical research. He is the coeditor of the 1987 through 2008 editions of the Periodical Source Index, the largest and most comprehensive subject index to historical and genealogical periodical literature published by the Allen County Public Library Foundation and ProQuest, Inc. He is also on the Advisory Board for The Generations Network and a contributing columnist for their magazine. Curt serves on the FamilySearch Advisory Council of the Genealogical Society of Utah as well as on the Board of Advisors for Footnote.com . He is the co-chair of the Genealogy Publications Committee of the Indiana Historical Society and was a research consultant for both the PBS Series, Ancestors.
In addition to the hundreds of articles he has penned, in 2000 Curt authored, African American Genealogy: A Bibliography and Guide to Sources. He served for eight years as the National Volunteer Data Input Coordinator for the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, building a free, online database that has basic information on the service records of 6.3 million Civil War soldiers <www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/>. Curt was distinguished in 1995 as a fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association (FUGA) and received the Federation of Genealogical Societies' highest honor, the Rabbi Malcolm H. Stern Humanitarian Award, in 1997, and the Federation’s David Vogels Award in 1999. In 1997, he was one of the Kellogg Foundation's "Expert in Residence" scholars. He is the 2002 ALA-RUSA History Section Genealogical Publishing Company Award winner and in 2003 was honored by the Indiana Historical Society as that year’s Willard Heiss Memorial Lecturer. Curt was recognized in 2006 by being named the first fellow of the Indiana Genealogical Society. He was honored in May of 2007 with the P. William Filby Award for outstanding genealogical librarianship.