Family history is a fascinating and personal way for everyone to better understand who they are and how our past has shaped us. Genealogy also helps to reveal and strengthen connections between individuals and communities.
How does family history research that begins with personal interest become part of the larger story of our communities? Reem Awad-Rashmawi explores the connections between genealogy and public history, emphasizing that history is not only created within academic spaces, but also lives in the stories families preserve, share, and reclaim. She considers how oral histories, connecting with ancestral homelands, and recovering family narratives inform and reflect academic practices, while maintaining value as community-based research. Based on her recent chapter, “Arab American Genealogy Research as a Form of Public History” in Edward E. Curtis IV’s Arab American Public History, Awad-Rashmawi draws from a deeply personal research journey, her work as a professional genealogist, and her nonprofit efforts to build community around Arab and Arab American family history.
Participants can join us in person at the NYG&B New York City office or virtually. This is a free program, but registration is required.
This series is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. It is part of the NYG&B’s Preserving Your New York Story series, which offers free sessions for people to digitally preserve their own family history records as well as programming for tracing their family history and connecting with their past.
Speaker Bio
Reem Awad-Rashmawi, JD, is a professional genealogist and community historian, as well as an immigration attorney. She has been researching her own family for four decades.
She specializes in Arab and Arab American genealogical and historical research, as well as U.S. records research, oral history, DNA analysis, adoptee and unknown parentage cases, and dual citizenship documentation. She is the founder of Photographs and Memories by Reem, through which she provides professional genealogical services, and the National Society for Arab & Arab American Genealogy (NSAB), where she currently serves as president. She also serves on the board of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) and currently chairs the NGS Genetic Genealogy Working Group.
Reem holds degrees in International Relations and Sociology from the University of California, Davis, a JD with a focus in International Law, and a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. She lectures and leads workshops nationally on Arab genealogy, Arab American public history, oral history, genetic genealogy, and immigration records and research. She is the author of the chapter “Arab American Genealogy Research as a Form of Public History” in Arab American Public History (2026), edited by Edward E. Curtis IV.
