Join us as we celebrate a successful first chapter in the “Preserving Your New York Story” series with an in person and live-streamed panel discussion! Our genealogists in the series represent expertise in a variety of cultural and geographical areas. Find out more about their professional journeys, what makes research in their fields specific and unique, and take this opportunity to ask the experts your family history questions in real time.
New Yorkers, if you’ve joined us for one of our spring programs, seen one of our more than 100 “Preserving Your New York Story” subway posters, or are a seasoned NYG&B Member or a new researcher, we would love to connect with you and share the varied perspectives of some of our key presenters in the series.
Moderated by Joshua Taylor, President, NYG&B.
Panelist Bios
Reem Awad-Rashmawi, JD, is a professional genealogist and community historian who has been researching her own family for more than 30 years. She is also an immigration attorney with more than 27 years of experience representing clients in U.S. immigration matters. Reem 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 and Arab American Genealogy (NSAB), where she currently serves as president. She also serves on the board of the National Genealogical Society (NGS), currently chairing the NGS Genetic Genealogy Working Group.
Reem holds degrees in International Relations and Sociology from UC Davis, a JD with a focus in international law, and a Certificate in Genealogical Research from Boston University. She has completed advanced genealogical training and lectures nationally, including recent presentations on Arab genealogy at RootsTech 2024 and 2025, the Arab American Public History Conference, and the Oral History Association Annual Meeting.
Lara Diamond began researching her own family around 1989. She has traced all branches of her family multiple generations back in Eastern Europe using Russian Empire-era and Austro-Hungarian Empire records. Most of her personal research is in modern-day Ukraine, with a smattering of Belarus and Poland. She has done client research leading to their ancestors in many parts of the former USSR, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and more. She is president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Maryland, is JewishGen's Director of Subcarpathia Research, and is a strategic advisor to JewishGen’s Ukraine Research Division. She has lectured around the country and internationally on Jewish and Eastern European genealogy research as well as genetic genealogy. She also runs multiple district- and town-focused projects to collect documentation to assist all those researching ancestors from common towns. Lara blogs about her Eastern European and Jewish research at larasgenealogy.blogspot.com.
LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG®, 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, and is now a full-time genealogist focused on teaching and writing. Her research centers on African American families that survived American slavery. She has been a trustee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® (BCG) since 2016 and served three terms as BCG President from 2019–22. In 2021 LaBrenda was elected as the 170th Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists (ASG), the field’s honorary scholarly society. Her website is labgarrettgenealogy.com.
As a first-generation American (Dominican and Scottish), Elizabeth Murray Vargas' passion is immigrant research and tracing families back to their country of origin. She earned a dual BA degree in International Relations and Spanish and graduated in Genealogical Research from Boston University. She specializes in U.S. South-Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic states, Latin Europe, and Latin America, including Mexico, South America, and the Spanish Caribbean. Elizabeth is the owner of Legacy Quest Genealogy.
This series is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
