As a professional genealogist and historian, I have over ten years of archival research and writing experience. My foray into the world of genealogy started with my own family history. Growing up in Chicago, I devoured the stories my paternal grandmother told of her childhood in the 1920s and 30s, the various tales of family members, and the family’s Jewish roots in Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine.

After my grandmother passed away when I was fourteen, I realized just how important it was to document. Soon enough, it became my personal mission to collect as much information as possible on the family: from public records to oral histories to family photographs. By the end of high school, I had constructed an extensive family tree including over 2,000 relatives. As the years progressed and my archive grew, I discovered that as much as I loved doing this work for my own family, I loved doing it in equal measure for others. I wanted to give other families the same grasp on their family history that I had been able to do for my own. Thus, Gelman Genealogy was born.

I have conducted extensive research and written both short narratives and books for dozens of clients coming from a wide variety of family backgrounds, including Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, African-Americans, Latin Americans, those with roots across the European continent, and individuals from Oceania, Asia, and Africa.

I earned a dual bachelor’s degree in History and Anthropology from Brandeis University and a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. Already working in the field of family history, I graduated with a master’s degree in Jewish Studies from Columbia University, writing my thesis on the Sephardi Jewish history of Tangier, Morocco, in the inter-war period. In addition, I worked for over seven years with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. in its Family & Business History Center, researching the family histories of the bank’s ultra-high-net-worth clients.

I look forward to ensuring your family’s history and legacy are explored, preserved, and honored for generations to come. Please reach out—I would love to work with you!