Celebrating 150 Years of Colorado Statehood
and
135 Years of the Elitch Theatre
PROUD MAJOR SPONSOR - COLORADO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
PROUD CO-SPONSOR - COLORADO COUNCIL OF GENEALOGICAL SOCIETIES
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In Partnership with Elitch Theatre and Legendary Ladies
"I Study Other People's History for a Living: A Novice Genealogist Tries Diving Into Her Own History, Presenter - Stephanie Gilmore
Stephanie's heritage is primarily German on her maternal side, and what she lovingly calls “Euro-mutt,” or English-Irish-Scottish-Welsh-French, on her paternal side. As you will learn in her talk, her maternal great-great grandfather emigrated to the U.S. in the 1870s, and that comes with a wild story!
Bio
Stephanie began working for Golden History Museum & Park in 2022 and oversees the collections and exhibits. Before she joined the Golden team, she was the curator of collections at the Colorado Railroad Museum for seven years. She has been in the museum business since college and has worked as a registrar, collections manager, curator, and conservation technician, to name a few, at the Denver Art Museum, CU Boulder Museum of Natural History, Molly Brown House, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, she earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology from the University of California at Berkeley in 2005. Shen then moved to Colorado and earned her master’s in museum studies and archaeology from the University of Denver in 2008.
She loves animals, and in her spare time, she volunteers on the board of the Cat Care Society, an all-cat animal shelter. An avid crafter, Stephanie enjoys making gifts for friends and family, such as paintings, crochet, mugs, and clothing. She also enjoys traveling and cooking (and, let’s be honest, eating). She lives in Lakewood with her husband, Erik, and their beloved cat, Lando Catrissian (named for the character Lando Catrissian from Star Wars).
Presentation Detail Coming Soon
Kristy Thomas Bio
I was born and raised in Evergreen, Colorado. My family camped every summer, exploring old mining sites in Colorado and we always took driving vacations to visit historic sites throughout the west.
I began working in the mineral exploration field as an office manager. I have always been fascinated by the gold and silver mining history of the western United States and have visited most of the old mining towns in Colorado as well as several in Nevada, Montana and Arizona.
From the late 1980s to the early 2000s I lived and worked on the C Lazy U Ranch and Resort in Granby, Colorado. My ex-husband’s family owned the Ranch and throughout my 20 years there I ran the front office, the dining room, the gift shop and the landscaping crew. The C Lazy U began as a working ranch and became one of the first to accept paying guests to help with the cattle operation.
I took the position as the Manager of Afternoon Tea at the Brown Palace Hotel in 2008 and worked with the hotel historian in order to speak with guests about the hotel’s history. I occasionally took guests to visit the presidential suites in the hotel. After retiring in 2014, I became a historic interpreter on the 1860s farm at the Littleton History Museum. At the same time, I became a docent at the Highlands Ranch Mansion. In the past two years I have worked weekly in both positions as well as taking part in the public events hosted by both the Museum and Mansion.
THE STORY: In 1996 I moved from teaching US History at the middle school level to teaching US History in a high school. I knew that in teaching World War II and women's roles, I wanted to present the topic in a way that would be more meaningful and in more depth than what was in the textbook. I had done research on the Denver Ordnance Plant - now the Denver Federal Center - and knew that that would be a perfect vehicle. So I scoured Broadway antique shops for props and developed my story as Gail Murphy, a bullet case worker at the plant. From that humble beginning, I added more and more props and expanded the presentation. Soon I was presenting to women's auxiliaries, clubs, organizations, churches, senior citizen groups and facilities. Some were only a few miles from my home; others were as far away as Omaha, Nebraska, and Telluride, Colorado.
THE LEGACY: The best part of presenting the contributions of American women to the World War II effort was meeting many, many "Rosies," female military veterans, male veterans, and others who labored behind the scenes to support and care for our servicemen. The stories they told me in Q & A sessions and afterwards were so inspiring that I knew I had found the topic for my next book. And thus, Colorado Women in World War II was born.
BIO:
A native of western Massachusetts, I was fortunate to move with my family to Colorado when I was eight years old. I like to say that we came via The Mayflower. Of course that would be the Mayflower Moving Company! I have a BS in education from the University of Colorado Boulder which led to a teaching career of over thirty years in elementary, middle, and high schools, and at two community colleges. Yes, I have STORIES!
I earned two master's degrees -- one in United States History and one in Public History -- from University of Colorado Denver.
Upon retirement from teaching I indulged in several long trips with my mother and worked on my first book, Colorado Women: A History. During the next eight years I researched and wrote Colorado Women in World War II. Two long hiking trips in Ireland (April 2017 and April 2018) were welcome hiatuses from reading microfilmed newspapers and poring through books and archival material. I love researching but microfilm reading is blinding and sitting long stretches of time is exhausting. Fifteen to twenty mile hikes from bed and breakfast to bed and breakfast in the Irish countryside was restorative!
December 2019 through January 2021 were pleasantly spent researching and working with Dr. Thomas J. Noel on The Women's Bank: A Denver Success Story. What an amazing group of founding women (and men).
The past several years I have been working on Colorado Women Homesteaders (and of course a hiking trip to the Cotswolds in England thrown in).
Having images of our ancestors makes them come to life for us. We’ll learn about how you can locate images of your ancestors – some in unexpected places. Since my early days of family history research, I've made it a priority to locate images of my ancestors. Up to today, I have images of all of my direct line ancestors through my 2nd great grandparents, over half of my 3rd great grandparents, and several beyond that going back before the invention of photography.
BIO
Andy Likins has been fascinated by family history for as long as he can remember and has been actively researching for over 40 years. Ancestry Magazine and Archives.com have published articles he has written on topics relating to American and Scandinavian research, he has presented to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and MyHeritage Facebook Live, and he has performed research for PBS’s Finding Your Roots. His memberships include the Swedish Colonial Society and the Pikes Peak Genealogical Society. Andy is a professor at Pikes Peak State College. Collecting images of family members is one of his favorite aspects of genealogy.
