LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG®, CGL, FASG

LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG®, CGL(SM), FASG, earned a BA from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, and both a Law degree and a Master of Laws degree from New York University. She enjoyed a 35-year career as a tax lawyer before her 2013 retirement from a partner-level position at Ernst & Young (EY), and is now a full-time genealogist focused on teaching and writing. Her research centers on African American families that survived American slavery. She was elected to the first of three terms as a trustee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® in 2016, and served three terms as BCG President from 2019-2022.

In 2021 LaBrenda was elected as the 170th Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists (ASG), the field’s honorary scholarly society that was founded in 1940 and is limited to fifty life-time members; election is based on the quality of a genealogist’s published work. As described in ASG’s press release: “Her educational publications include a guide to researching African-American family history in Laurens County, South Carolina, where she has roots—a primer with important methodological lessons applicable nationally—and an authoritative guide to genealogical research in the state of Alabama.” She received the 2021 Award of Excellence from the National Genealogical Society Quarterly and now serves on the editorial board of that journal.

She was the mentor of ProGen 37, and she coordinates the African American Track at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. She also teaches various subjects on the faculty of the GRIP Genealogy Institute, the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records, and the Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research. Previously she served as a teaching assistant on the faculty of Boston University’s Online Genealogical Program from 2016–2019.

For more information see her website https://www.LabGarrettGenealogy.com.