Overview  |   Courses  |   Instructors and Guest Speakers  |   Advisory Board  |   How to Register

Instructors

Sarah Thorson Little
Genealogist

Little is a professional genealogist specializing in 18th-20th century American records, as well as Scandinavian and Washington state research. She has conducted research for several native American tribes in Washington state, family associations, attorneys, private investigators, corporations and individuals. The past president of the Seattle Genealogical Society, Little is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. She has lectured at several national conferences, including the National Genealogical Society, the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, as well as for numerous groups in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

James Rigali, Ph.D.
Historian

Rigali has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington, with a specialization in 19th century U.S. history. He has taught courses at the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran University , and North Seattle Community College on such topics as colonial American history, African-American history, and historical research methods. He has always enjoyed working with students on assignments focusing on their family history.

Guest Speakers

Susan Karren

Karren is the Regional Archives Director at the National Archives-Pacific Alaska Region (Seattle). She has been with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for 19 years, beginning her career in Washington, D.C. in modern military records. She has also worked at the Region in Chicago. Karren received her M.A. in History from Brigham Young University.

Julie Kerssen

Kerssen is an archivist and public historian at the Museum of History and Industry who has done previous work at King County, the University of California-San Francisco, and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee archives in New York. She will speak to the class in the spring quarter about methods and strategies for preserving family collections. Kerssen received her M.A. degree in history and archives administration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Robert Tracy McKenzie

McKenzie is associate professor in the UW Department of History, where he has served for the past eighteen years, earning the university's Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998. A specialist in the history of the American Civil War, his most recent publication is Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War, forthcoming in 2006 from Oxford University Press.

William J. Rorabaugh

Rorabaugh is Professor of History at the University of Washington, where he has taught since 1976. He specializes in American history in the early 19th century and in the 1960s. His books include The Alcoholic Republic (Oxford, 1979); Berkeley at War: The 1960s (Oxford, 1989); and Kennedy and the Promise of the Sixties (Cambridge, 2002). He is descended from Hans Georg Rohrbach, who stepped off the boat in Philadelphia in 1732 and swore allegiance to George II with an X.

Instructors and Guest Speakers are subject to change.