The Georgia Genealogist

Rus Schmidt

Rus is a retired school administrator and educator. He earned his Bachelor of Science undergraduate degrees from Murray State University with majors in English and History and a Minor in Art. He holds a M.Ed from the University of Montevallo with a Major in Secondary Education and Minors in Educational Leadership and Art. He also completed work toward a Doctorate (ABD) in Educational Administration and Planning at the University of Alabama. Before retiring, he worked almost 50 years in the public school systems of Alabama and Georgia as a high school administrator and middle school art teacher.

Lori Cook-Folger, CG®

Lori is the owner of Southern Genealogist, LLC. and has been researching since 1984. An old photograph where someone had written on the back, “Remember me–tho my face you can not see,” spurred her interest. Lori wanted to know who the woman was, and she wanted to remember her! Lori loves to piece together the details that make up a person’s life. All of our ancestors left clues to their everyday life in the records and photos they created.

Lori holds the Certified Genealogist® (CG) credential. Her background is in Southern research and some Midwest research. Lori's company and Yvonne's company. partner to work with the DPAA project.

Yvonne Mashburn Schmidt, CG®

Yvonne owns The Georgia Genealogist, Inc. She holds Boston University's Certificate of Genealogical Research, the Certified Genealogist® credential awarded by the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, and the Certificate of Investigative Genetic Genealogy from Ramapo College, NJ.

Her work focuses on Georgia and Deep South Research, Genetic Genealogy, and Forensic Genealogy. She works with the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, U.S. Army Past Conflicts Repatriations Branch and accepts individual client, law enforcement, and legal projects.

She founded the nonprofit InVGene Initiative, Inc. whose team uses Investigative Genetic Genealogy, which combines traditional genealogy and genetic genealogy, to provide investigative leads to law enforcement agencies in cold cases involving violent crime, sexual assault, and unidentified human remains.

She's a native Georgian and resides in Vidalia, GA, about 90 miles from Savannah, with husband Rus and 3 sons and their families.