BCG offers Emeritus status to a Board-certified genealogist who has had a long and distinguished career with BCG and who is retired. The Board of Trustees voted on 21 October 2023 to award this designation to Pamela Boyer Sayre, CG® Retired (2021), FUGA.
Pamela Boyer Sayre became be CG® no. 768 on 30 July 1998 and was CGL℠ no. 22 from 2001–2016. She served as copy editor of BCG’s OnBoard in 2008, as a nominating committee member in 2012, and as news release coordinator from 2019 to 2021. More importantly, Pam was involved in staffing every BCG booth at the local Fairfax (Virginia) Genealogical Society Conferences from 2007–2013, and many live FGS and NGS conferences since she became certified.
Pamela’s greatest skills have been in supporting BCG’s mission to inform and educate. She began lecturing and teaching genealogy classes in St. Louis, Missouri, in the late 1990s. In 2005, Pam created and taught the week-long course “Using Computers in Genealogy” at the Genealogical Institute of Mid-America in Springfield, Illinois. She has developed, coordinated, and taught courses at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, and Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh, including “Methods and Sources” (2007–2017); “Researching in Washington, DC, without Leaving Home” (2011–2017); “Advanced Land Records” (2012–2020); and “Show Me Missouri” (2021). Pam also taught in other coordinators’ courses at these institutes and for Boston University’s onsite Professional Certificate Program in Genealogy in 2011.
Ms. Sayre is a popular seminar presenter who spoke at almost every NGS and FGS conference from 1997–2018, as well as genealogy conferences and seminars in 35 states and on international cruises.
Pam is former NGS director of education and publications, and a former board member of NGS and FGS. She was elected a fellow of the Genealogical Society of Utah in 2015. She also served as a mentor to ProGen Study Group 28.
She has written several books, including co-authoring Online Roots: How to Discover Your Family’s History and Heritage with the Power of the Internet (Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, 2003) and Research in Missouri (National Genealogical Society, 1999, rev. 2007). Pam also wrote Paths to Your Past: A Guide to Finding Your Ancestors (National Genealogical Society, 2009, rev. 2018) and the Missouri chapter in the third edition of Ancestry’s Red Book (2004). With her husband, Richard G. Sayre, CG®, CGL℠, FUGA, she co-authored the NGS Research in the States guide to Washington, D.C., just published in 2023. She was editor of APGQ (2000–2002) and FGS FORUM Digitools columnist (2004–2009).
In retirement, Pam and her husband have co-founded a family history group at their new home in a Delaware 55-plus retirement community, continuing a life-long passion for genealogy and the desire to share that joy with others.
On behalf of BCG and the entire genealogical community, thank you, Pam!
The words Certified Genealogist and letters CG are registered certification marks, and the designations CGL and Certified Genealogical Lecturer are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluation.
