The following is from brightSolid.
brightsolid hires top genealogist D. Joshua Taylor to support move into US market
• He’s helped stars find their roots on TV’s “Who Do You Think You Are?”
Now, he’s helping brightsolid’s US launch as business development manager
and media spokesperson
• Taylor is one of several new appointments to the new US operation
of UK’s major online genealogy business
January 30, 2012. SANTA MONICA, CA: brightsolid online publishing, a leading online provider of historical and genealogical content, today announces that top genealogist D. Joshua Taylor has joined its new US operation with immediate effect, as business development manager and media spokesperson.
D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS is one of America’s most prominent genealogists – a prolific genealogical researcher, speaker and author, who has also received numerous awards for his work. Adept at media interviews, he has twice been featured on the NBC series ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’, helping both Sarah Jessica Parker and Ashley Judd trace their family trees.
“We’re thrilled to have recruited such a dynamic and talented genealogist to represent us both to the media and the wider genealogical community”, says Neil Curtis, brightsolid’s new Senior Vice-President (SVP) of North America.
Speaking about his appointment, Taylor says: “Having seen what brightsolid has achieved on the UK genealogy scene, I’m excited about helping them fulfill their huge potential in the US.”
British-owned brightsolid has itself been at the forefront of technological innovations in family history for over three decades. It hosts over a billion genealogical records across its family of brands and was this month voted Best Genealogy Organization in the online Gene Awards.
As part of its move into North America, brightsolid is sponsoring RootsTech 2012, the major family history and technology conference, taking place in Salt Lake City from February 2-4 2012, where Taylor himself will be giving three talks. They will cover, respectively, the need for a universal standard in online digital archiving; best practices for using Cloud computing in family history research; and a forecast for future genealogy software developments.
Other new appointments to brightsolid’s new US operation:
D. Joshua Taylor is just one of several new appointments for brightsolid, following the opening this month of its new US operation, based in Santa Monica, California.
• Neil Curtis moves from his role as brightsolid Corporate Development Manager to focus on the US market as Senior Vice President (SVP) of North America.
• Rachel Denning joins as the General Manager of North America, after 14 years experience in the IT and web industries.
• Brian Speckart joins as Marketing Manager of North America, after a varied 15-year career in marketing and public relations, including teaching New Media Marketing at UCLA Extension.
• Katy Curtis will focus on North America as Finance Manager, after previously working as a director at KPMG.
• More About D. Joshua Taylor
D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS has been passionate about genealogical and historical research since his youth. He has continued to show this passion during his 15-year year career in the genealogy industry.
He has received numerous awards for his work, including RootsTech’s Distinguished Presenter Award, the Federation of Genealogical Societies Award of Merit and the Rubincam Youth Award from the National Genealogical Society.
He is the current Vice-President of Administration for the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), where he also serves as chairman of the Conference Planning Committee. He previously held the role of Director of Education and Programs at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the nation’s oldest genealogical organization (founded in 1845).
He was a regular columnist for ‘Digital Genealogist’ and has published prolifically in ‘America Ancestors’ and ‘Association of Professional Genealogist Quarterly’, amongst other titles. He is also a frequent speaker at genealogical societies and events, including GENTECH, the National Genealogical Society Annual Conference and RootsTech, where he’ll be speaking again this year.
He holds an MLS (Archival Management) and an MA (History) from Simmons. In the medium-term Taylor will be based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He will be giving three talks at RootsTech 2012, February 2-4:
• A User's Perspective: Developing a Universal Metadata Structure for Genealogical Content Providers
• Do I Trust the Cloud? - Cloud Computing and Family History
• Software Forecast 2.0 - What Genealogists Need for the Future
• About brightsolid
Since 1994, brightsolid group has been delivering online innovation and pioneering the expansion of the genealogy market with leading family history websites including the global network of findmypast sites, plus ScotlandsPeople, GenesReunited, and
britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, together servicing over 18 million registered customers worldwide.
The sites connect people via their innovative family tree software and deliver access to over a billion records dating as far back as 1200. Family historians can search for their ancestors among global collections, relating primarily to people with UK and Irish ancestry, of military records, census, migration, occupation directories, newspapers, as well as birth, marriage and death records.
brightsolid is proud to be part of the 1940 US Census Community Project, a joint initiative with Archives.com, FamilySearch and other leading genealogy organizations, which aims to make the 1940 census searchable as quickly as possible after its release in April 2012. The completion of the project will allow anyone to search for their ancestors in the 1940 census for free online. Learn about this exciting new project at
www.the1940census.com and volunteer to help today!
