Genealogy Panel


On this page:
The Panelists / The Process / Contact the Panel
2012 Report / 2011 Report / 2010 Report

In late 2009 the CFA Executive Committee established a Genealogy Panel to guide members and potential new members in their Chandler family history research. The assistance the panel is providing on genealogical inquiries is enhancing the reputation of the CFA, building its membership, bringing in DNA Project participation, and extending the association’s knowledge of Chandler matters.

The number of cases handled by the panel was more than 70 in 2010, more than 130 in 2011, and 217 in 2012. Many of the cases were successfully concluded for the inquirer. Reports from all years, with inquirer’s names hidden to protect privacy, are available for viewing and each also links to a printable version:

If you can provide information on one of the cases, contact the panel at Email Genealogy Panel.

Grateful comments to the Genealogy Panel

Just to say thank you very much for the trouble you went to. It has progressed my research and given me a base to continue searching.

“Thank you so very much for the time and attention you gave to this!”

“Many thanks for your kind reply and so much good information for me to research.”

“Thank you for your encouragement and support.”

“I am truly grateful for all your input. This has been the shot in the arm that my genealogical research has needed.”

“Thanks for your patience and all your help.”

“I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your efforts. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!”

Back to top

The Panelists

Jim Winston serves as panel chairperson.  He is assisted by a number of consultants who act as resources to the panel on specific inquiries which relate to their own lineage or area of expertise.  We could always use additional panelists to help with the research the panel accomplishes.  If you have any interest in helping us with this research, please contact Jim Light, CFA President and let him know.  Your contributions would be very welcome.

Basic requirements to be a panelist are:

  • Desire to serve other Chandler researchers
  • Computer literacy (as user, not technician)
  • Ability to work with other researchers in an amicable manner
  • Basic knowledge of genealogical research, i.e.
    1. where to look for information
    2. how to document a lineage
    3. the ability to determine quickly whether a lineage is plausible e.g. by looking at dates of birth, marriage, and death.

Back to top

The Process

The process normally followed by the Genealogy Panel is as follows:

  1. Incoming messages to the panel from the website email link are automatically routed to the chairperson and the CFA President at the same time. This reduces the risk of unanswered mail.
  2. The Chairperson prepares standardized synopsis of request, logs the query, giving it a case number, and responds to inquirer for ratification and “full disclosure” (i.e. confirmation that we have been told all the inquirer knows about the subject and identification of the sources which he/she has searched). This is so that panelists’ time is not wasted telling the inquirer things he/she already knows.
  3. When ratified by inquirer, chairperson alerts the members of the Genealogy Panel of the new query. Often, the query falls into an area of expertise of one of the panelists, and that panelist volunteers to take responsibility for the query; the case is then assigned.
  4. The assigned panelist examines the query, consults as appropriate, prepares a response and replies to the inquirer, copying those panelists who have contributed and the chairperson.
  5. The chairperson prepares a monthly report to the CFA President, and a quarterly report to the CFA Executive Committee. These reports are reviewed with particular focus on queries that have not been addressed for some time; extra emphasis will then be placed on these older queries to be sure they do not languish longer.

It is not the intention to do the inquirers research for them: rather, to advise them how they might overcome their brick walls. This does not preclude a panelist from doing some research to help an inquirer, if time and resources are available.
Back to top

Contact the Panel

If you would like to work with the Genealogy Panel to solve your Chandler line mysteries, please write an email message that includes all known generations above you; dates and places of your ancestors’ births, deaths and residence; and siblings if known. Families often repeat first names in successive generations, so we do need all the names, dates and places you can provide. So that the Genealogy Panel will not retrace research you have already done, please also include a digest of the research you have already done and sources you have already consulted.

Email Genealogy Panel  Clicking on the address at left will open a new email to the Genealogy Panel. If you do not have an email program installed on your computer (perhaps you use one of the online email services like Yahoo or Gmail), you will need to type the address into your message. In that case, please include “For CFA Genealogy Panel” as the subject.

Back to top