Genealogist, Society of Genealogists, London

Else Churchill, Dip Lib

Else Churchill is the Genealogist at the Society of Genealogists in London and has over 40 years of experience as genealogist and educator. She currently leads as the Society’ subject specialist and the Society’s education and publication programmes, campaigns and external liaison. Else lectures regularly for the Society of Genealogists, The National Archives and for local groups around the United Kingdom. She has also lectured extensively in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA. Along with teaching the Pharos course on sources for the long 18th century her main research interests lie in the seventeenth century and sources for people who lived through the English Civil Wars and enjoys trying to help American genealogists cross the pond to discover the roots of their colonial ancestors. Her own family history research is concentrated in SW Herefordshire in the 1670s but having exhausted most of the surviving local sources for this period and with little chance of taking this family back further, she has recently been concentrating more on 20th century scandals in her immediate family and applying DNA studies to her genealogy Else campaigns and actively works on behalf of the genealogical community. She has been on the Council of British Record Society, and on the Council of Friends of The National Archives and TNA Advisory User Panel and Convenor of the British Genealogical Record Users Committee. She has been a member of the Federation of Family History Societies Education sub- committee. She served a nine year stint as a member of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Council on National Records and has presented evidence to Parliamentary Committees on genealogical matters and contributed to the All Party Parliamentary Group on History and Archives. She is an active participant in the Historians Collaborate group. She is the 2023 recipient of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies' Bickersteth Memorial Medal for her contribution to genealogy, being only the third woman to receive the award in nearly 50 years.