“Flesh on the Bones: Turning Dry Ancestral Details into a Life Story,” Brevity (May 2010)
“Keep the Pages Turning,” The Family History Writing Challenge. The Armchair Genealogist Blog (23 February 2012)
“Making Your Readers Laugh,” The Family History Writing Challenge. The Armchair Genealogist Blog (27 February 2012)
“On Beets, Rice, and Writing Family History: An Interview with Sharon DeBartolo Carmack,” by Dinty Moore, Brevity’s Nonfiction Blog, 3 May 2016.
“The Unspoken in Writing Family Histories,” Brevity‘s Nonfiction Blog, 11 February 2022.
“Re-Visioning and Editing Your Family History Narrative,” The Family History Writing Challenge. The Armchair Genealogist Blog (23 February 2015).
“You Don’t Have to Write a Book! Writing Your Family History as Personal and Memoir Essays.” Family History Writing Challenge. The Armchair Genealogist Blog (23 February 2013)
“Write a Memoir to Remember,” Writer’s Digest (July 2002)
“Writing Women’s Lives,” Women Writers, Women’s Books (18 Dec. 2021).
Scholarly Articles and Monographs
“A Very Poisoned Cream Puff: The California Eugenics Movement through Steinbeck’s Cannery Row,” Steinbeck Review 8 (Fall 2011): 53-67.
David and Charlotte Hawes (Buckner) Stuart of King George County, Virginia Including Three Generations of Their Descendants (monograph, 1998, 2009).
“Fitzhugh Bible,” The Virginia Genealogist 38 (July-September 1994): 201-202.
“Going Through the Side Door: The Irish Origins of Delia (Gordon) Norris of Greenwich, Connecticut,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 157 (April 2003): 125-26.
“Immigrant Women and Family Planning: Historical Perspectives for Genealogical Research,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 84 (June 1996): 102-114.
“The Mysterious Maria Hayden,” SNU Today (September 2018).
“Reverse Research Methodology: Tracing the Wife of William Gibbons Stuart of King George County, Virginia, to Find Him,” The Virginia Genealogist 46 (Jan-Mar 2002): 47-53.
The Riggs Family of Accomack County, Virginia, and Louisiana, ca. 1687 to 1943 (monograph, 2008).
“A Small Window of Opportunity: The Norris Family Returns to Tamlaghtmore, Co. Tyrone, Ireland,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 161 (April 2007):119-22.
“There’s Something About Nancy: Identifying the Family of Nancy (Donnally) Bane, Inmate at the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum and the Athens Insane Asylum,” The American Genealogist 79 (Jan-Apr 2004): 121-34.
Literary Essays
“Daughtered Out,” Portland Review 60 (Fall 2013): 49-57.
“From the Other End of the Speculum,” Phoebe: A Journal of Literature and Art 41.2 (Fall 2012), Honorable Mention, Creative Nonfiction Writing Contest.
“The Ghoul of the Queen City,” Finalist, 2012 True Crime Contest sponsored by Creative Nonfiction.
“The Fake Spiritualist Medium, the Scientific American Editor, and His Wife: Sharon DeBartolo Carmack on a Real-Life Nightmare Alley, Literary Hub, 3 Mar. 2022.
“How an Irish Barman Created a Home for New York’s Literary Elite,” Literary Hub, 14 May 2021.
“Switched at Midlife” Hippocampus Magazine (January 2012).
“The Victorian Séance Comes to England,” Wilderness House Literary Review 16/2 (Summer 2021). Discover another side to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton and Charles Dickens.
On Genealogy
“A Little Italy,” Family Tree Magazine (July 2010): 54-61. These 10 genealogy resources will give you a taste of your Italian roots.
“Blazon Truth,” Trace Your Family History [special publication of Family Tree Magazine] (May 2006): 30-35. Don’t let family crest peddlers catch you with your shield down. Learn if you really have heraldic heritage before you shell out for a bogus coat of arms.
“Cemetery Records Workbook,” Family Tree Magazine (October/November 2016): 32-40.
“Cracking the Tombstone Code,” Family Tree Magazine (June 2005): 46-51. Confused by cemetery symbols? Want to extract new evidence from your ancestors’ grave markers? Follow these eight steps to uncover hidden clues during your next trip the boneyard.
“Easy Medical Summaries,” NGS NewsMagazine (September-October 2004).
“Finding Mr. Right,” Family Tree Magazine (September 2010): 42-49. Multiple men with the same name are vying for your genealogical affection. Any of them could be your ancestor. Use these nine strategies to ensure that you’ve found “the one” before you commit.
“Institutional Records,” Family Tree Magazine (January/February 2016): 29-36. Discover how to locate the records of hospitals, insane asylums, prisons, tuberculin sanatoriums, poor farms, orphanages, and more.
“Irish Blessings,” Family Tree Magazine (March 2008): 50-57. May the road to your roots rise up to meet you — just follow these seven steps for tracing Irish ancestors.
“Preventive Medicine,” Family Tree Magazine (October/November 2012): 19-23. Don’t let your family tree fall victim to diseased records. Our family tree doctor will show you how to recognize sick sources and prevent them from infecting your research.
“Researching Spiritualist Ancestors,” SpringBoard, Blog for the Board for Certification of Genealogists(R), 11 February 2016.
“Singing a New Tune,” Family Tree Magazine (March/April 2012): 48-53. Have you looked in all the usual places for your Irish ancestors? It’s time to try something different—like these six overlooked sources for tracing roots in Ireland.
“Teaching New Dogs Old Tricks,” Family Tree Magazine (March/April 2013): 22-27. Don’t bark up your family tree in futility. Try these nine old school strategies to break through your brick walls.
“The Tree Doctor,” Family Tree Magazine (November 2007): 52-57. No one’s research is immune to bad dates, faulty facts and even downright lies. Don’t let these errors infect your family tree—follow our diagnostician’s prescription for curing five common genealogical ills.
“Secrets of a Cyber Sleuth,” Family Tree Magazine (October 2004): 34-39. The Internet sure has simplified family detective work, but online clues don’t always lead to ancestral truth. Follow these six steps to separate proven facts from faux pas and presumptions.
“Viva Italia!,” Family Tree Magazine (June 2005): 52-59. Say grazie to your Italian heritage—and satisfy that hankering for fettuccine, frescoes, and operatic tenors—with our guide to exploring your roots in the boot country.