Rhonda launched her professional website, Tracing You, to help adoptees identify and find their birth parents by offering traditional and genetic genealogy assistance as well as mentorship. For ten years she has worked unknown parentage cases on her own and for volunteer organizations such as Search Angels. Helping families connect became her priority. When she heard about the use of investigational genetic genealogy, Rhonda joined the DNA Doe Project to help identify John and Jane Does. Her current role as a team leader allows her to help law enforcement name the nameless and give families closure through these identifications. When not researching, Rhonda enjoys sewing, painting and spending time with her family.
Lance caught the genealogy bug in early 2015, while researching his paternal family line – a complete mystery at the time. By summer of that same year, he had built out his family tree several generations and road tripped from New England to North Carolina to visit the Daly Family Cemetery. In 2020, he enrolled in Boston University’s Genealogical Principles Course to gain a solid foundation in genealogical research and methodology. That experience led him to focus his education and professional energies on genetic genealogy, by taking several online courses and educational webinars on the subject. Lance is now in the midst of cobbling together an education in investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) with plans to start an IGG internship in early 2022. In addition to APG membership, Lance is also a member of the Austin Genealogical Society and Texas State Genealogical Society.
Shera Broussard LaPoint is originally from Kaplan, LA but has been a resident of Bunkie for 34 years. She is the wife of Dr. Paul LaPoint Sr and the mother of four children and grandmother of nine. She was an office administrator for 32 years and now is a professional genetic genealogist. Shera has helped hundreds of adoptees and people of unknown parentage find their biological family. She also works with Law Enforcement to solve cases of unidentified persons and identify perpetrators of violent crimes. She is the founder of Our Roots Genealogy and DNA network and the founder of her own business, THE GENE HUNTER LLC. She enjoys speaking publicly to libraries and civic organizations about her DNA journey. She has been honored by the League City Texas Police Dept with their Coin of Excellence for her work in identifying a victim in the Texas Killing Fields and has also received a Coin of Excellence from BARDA, the United States Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority for her work in a homicide case. She was honored to have been named the 2021 Beaumont Police Department and Texas Ranger Troop A Crime Stopper of the Year award for her work in a 1995 homicide cold case. Shera has been a guest Investigative Genetic Genealogist on Crime Stories with Nancy Grace since 2019. She is a Licensed Private Investigator in the State of Louisiana. She is enthusiastic about being an advocate for Investigative Genetic Genealogy and how it is changing the face of crime fighting.
Vicki became interested in genealogy when she was 8 and was helping her babysitter who volunteered at the local Family History Center. She came back to genealogy in college, where she researched her family’s Cherokee heritage, and enrolled herself, dad and grandmother in the Cherokee Nation. As a recently, retired probate attorney, Vicki has been generating genealogical records for years and has worked with the courts to locate missing heirs. She plans to devote more time to professional genealogical work now that she’s retired from her legal practice. Vicki lives outside of Houston, and when not researching, is busy with her husband and two teenage children.
South Central Chapter, Association of Professional Genealogists 