John Cass and Scott Nadler
Using “Neighbor History” to Fill Gaps and Solve Mysteries
Cass and Nadler solved decades-old family mysteries that genealogy alone couldn’t solve. Their presentation follows a family using an innovative approach to fill gaps from Eastern Europe to East 9th Street in New York City, with touch-points ranging from rural “shtetls” to the Holland America ship line to Napoleon and two world wars. They will then turn to the emerging “neighbor history” methodology that makes this kind of approach widely accessible. “Neighbor History” goes beyond genealogy as a mere compilation of names and dates; instead, to understand an individual from the past, it explores their motivations, examines the historical context surrounding them, and analyzes the significance of the emerging data. Finally, they will look at how “Neighbor History” is revealing insights into a very different family story, involving slave-holders and abolitionists in 19th century Kentucky and Illinois.
John Cass has been a family historian since the 1980s, researching history in the UK, the west coast, and New England. He has presented at Boston National History Camp.
Scott Nadler (nadlerhistory@gmail.com, nadlerstrategy.com, practical-sustainable-strategy.ghost.io) has had a fifty-year career in politics, government, industry, consulting, and academics, working in North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. He has presented at Boston, Denver and National History Camps. He serves as Senior Fellow with the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI), and as a Board member of The Keshi Foundation, a public non-profit providing sustainable pathways promoting Zuni arts, education and economy while respecting the traditions and lifeways of the Zuni People. He is also a docent in the Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Santa Fe. And he is the Program Director for The Pursuit of History: Santa Fe in October 2024.
