ROOTS & BRANCHES

There are some types of people who only come around once in your life.

The type who mentors without any sense of what’s in it for them.

The type who never says no immediately even if that would have been the easier thing to do.

And the type who’s not above telling you the unvarnished truth.

For me, Kay Haviland Freilich was that person.

Freilich died recently after a long career in which she held virtually every post—and won every honor—worth having in the genealogy world.

She had credentials, holding both Certified Genealogist and Certified Genealogical Lecturer from the Board for Certification of Genealogists, which she also led as president.

Freilich was an accomplished writer, with many scholarly journal articles as well as authoring the Pennsylvania volume for the National Genealogical Society’s “Research in the States” series.

She also was involved in various lineage societies, vetting the application papers for prospective members—and she pulled no punches even if the applicant was someone she knew!

As a lecturer, she spoke at national conferences for more 20 years, and she was program chair for the National Genealogical Society conference held in Valley Forge in 1997, and became a font of wisdom for the program chairs of successive conferences.

This was put to the ultimate test in 2001 when the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference was held as the chaos of Sept. 11 unfolded the same week. Freilich quarterbacked finding “Plan B” and “Plan C” lecturers to fill spots of folks who were unable to arrive due to the grounding of air travel.

Personally, I remember my initial national conference in 2000 in Providence, Rhode Island, not long into my first tour as executive director of Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania and during the time Freilich was on the society’s board of directors.

It took me awhile to realize why a steady stream of the top people in the genealogy community were making their way to my exhibit booth. I was excited to be meeting these people for the first time. Finally, one said, “Oh, Kay told me I had to come meet you.”

But perhaps my fondest memory is one about Freilich some 15 years ago when I drove with my friend Andre Dominguez home from Nashville, Tenn., to Pennsylvania after a National Genealogical Society conference with just enough lecture tapes from the event to keep us company for the long ride.

Of course, we couldn’t help critiquing the various presenters—even at a national conference there sometimes are representatives of “the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

But when we finished listening to Kay’s presentation we were both speechless not only at the content but how well if had held up just listening to it and not seeing it, too.

“That’s the gold standard,” Dominguez said.

And that’s a great description for Freilich over all: Pure gold.