Sharon Sergeant

Sharon Sergeant (born 1947) is an American forensic genealogist who specializes in researching and tracing international fraud cases, property settlements, and provenance of artifact collections. She also conducts biographical research for historians, publishers, authors, and journalists. Sergeant attended Northeastern University and received a bachelor's degree from Boston University. She lives in Waltham, Massachusetts.

She was involved in exposing two high profile literary frauds in 2008, Misha Defonseca and Herman Rosenblat.[1]

Career

Sergeant is Director of Programs for the Massachusetts Genealogical Council, and has been an adjunct professor at Boston University, lecturing on problem-solving techniques and technology in genealogy. She is a forensic genealogist at IdentiFinders and owner of AncestralManor.com, and a systems engineering consultant at General Voice and Epodworks. She has worked in the fields of provenance, transportation systems, historical migration patterns, and artificial intelligence applications.

Cases

Sergeant and Colleen Fitzpatrick led the team that exposed as a hoax Misha Defonseca's bestselling book Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years (Surviving with Wolves).[2][3][4]

She also worked with the team that exposed Herman Rosenblat's book, Angel at the Fence as a fraudulent account of his time as a concentration camp survivor.[1][5][6]

References
  1. Judith Rosen. "Does Publishing Need Genealogists?", Publishers Weekly, Jan. 12, 2009. Archived January 22, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Barbara Taormina. "Bad moon rising: The truth behind a Holocaust hoax," The Daily News Tribune, Mar. 7, 2008. Archived June 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  3. Blake Eskin. "Crying Wolf Why did it take so long for a far-fetched Holocaust memoir to be debunked?" Slate, Feb 29, 2008.
  4. Blake Eskin, "The Girl Who Cried Wolf: A Holocaust fairy tale," Boston Magazine, September 2008. Archived May 2, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  5. Kayla Habermehl, "MSU professor debunks couple’s Holocaust hoax," The State News, January 14, 2009.
  6. Caleb Daniloff, "Untrue stories: a Genealogist Reveals the Truth About Three Holocaust Memoirs: They're Fiction" Bostonia Summer 2008
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