About this Project

BYU's paleography tutorial has been a key piece of the Center for Family History's online presence since its beginning in 2005. Initially, faculty members Professor Ray Wright and Professor George Ryskamp, along with student assistants, including Leandro Soria and Bradley York, constructed tutorials and information on German, English, and Romance languages.

By 2012 it was clear the website needed some updates and that it could be expanded to be more interactive ​and supportive of the Family History program's curriculum. The Department of History, the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, and the university were generous in their support to allow for that work. In 2012-13, Professors Amy Harris and George Ryskamp were awarded the David O. McKay Research and Creative Works Grant to support an expansion of the online tutorials. This was further supported by Professor Harris being awarded the Family, Home, and Social Sciences College Teaching Initiative Grant in 2013-14.

In 2021-2022, the website was again updated under the direction of George Ryskamp, Sarah Reed and Joe Everett and student supervisors, Amy Stoddard , Britney Condie, and Jacob Badal. Work on each of the current languages has been progressing over the years and continues today. Additional languages will be continue to be added in the future.

Faculty

	George Ryskamp Professor of History ryskamp@byu.edu (801) 422-8047 | 2105 JFSB George Ryskamp, J.D., AG, has served as Director of the Center for Family History and Genealogy at BYU (2003-2007); the Basque Family Heritage USA, University of Nevada, Reno (2005-2008); and Director of the Immigrant Ancestors Project and its Spanish, French and Italian sections, found at http://immigrants.byu.edu and http://script.byu.edu (2003-present).
	Amy Harris Associate Professor of History amy.harris@byu.edu (801) 422-2276 | 2150 JFSB . Dr Amy Harris is the current Family History Program Coordinator at BYU and an associate professor in the History Department.  Her research focuses on families, women, and gender in eighteenth-century Britain, though she has also written on family and genealogy in the LDS context.  Her first book, Siblinghood and Social Relations in Georgian England (2012) explored sibling relationships and their connections to political and social ideas of equality. More recently her article “Early Mormonism’s Expansive Family and the Browett Women” received the 2018 Mormon History Association Best Article Award. In 2018 she also published “A Genealogical Turn: Possibilities for Mormon Studies and Genealogical Scholarship” in Mormon Studies Review. Her latest book, A Single View: Family Life and the Unmarried in Georgian England will be published by Oxford University Press in 2023. Dr. Harris has a professional genealogical credential in English research and, along with Dr. Christopher Jones, teaches the English language paleography course at BYU.
	Sarah Reed Sarah Reed is Assistant Professor of History at BYU. She joined the department after completing a PhD in German with a minor in Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she wrote a dissertation on Mormonism in nineteenth-century German literature. Her research areas include German-American studies, Scandinavian-American studies, Mormon literature, and women writers. She has published on the Austrian writer Sidonie Grünwald-Zerkowitz, the Norwegian-American author Nephi Anderson, and on German-American studies topics. She lives in Provo with her husband Matt and a foster pipe organ.
	Joe Everett Joseph B. Everett, MLS, AG, is the Family and Local History Librarian at the BYU Library. He has over 25 years combined experience in the genealogical field at BYU, FamilySearch, and Ancestry.com. Joe manages the collections and patron services of the BYU Family History Library and serves as a faculty liaison to professors in BYU's Family History program and others involved in family history on campus. He is an Accredited Genealogist in German and Russian research and has a breadth of experience in other geographic areas.

Student Supervisors 2005-2022