Sharon Sergeant (born 1947) is an American

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and crimin ...

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

who specializes in researching and tracing international

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...

cases, property settlements, and provenance of

artifact Artifact, or artefact, may refer to: Science and technology * Artifact (error), misleading or confusing alteration in data or observation, commonly in experimental science, resulting from flaws in technique or equipment ** Compression artifact, a ...

collections. She also conducts biographical research for historians, publishers, authors, and journalists. Sergeant attended

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in Charlotte, North C ...

and received a bachelor's degree from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

. She lives in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, ...

. She was involved in exposing two high profile

literary frauds Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) is writing, such as a manuscript or a literary work, which is either deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author, or is a purported memoir o ...

in 2008, Misha Defonseca and Herman Rosenblat.Judith Rosen
"Does Publishing Need Genealogists?"
''Publishers Weekly'', Jan. 12, 2009.

Career

Sergeant is Director of Programs for the

Massachusetts Genealogical Council Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of the ...

, and has been an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the gener ...

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 Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

, 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). 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.Caleb Daniloff, "Untrue stories: a Genealogist Reveals the Truth About Three Holocaust Memoirs: They're Fiction" ''Bostonia'' Summer 200

/ref>

References

External links

Identifinders International

Northeastern University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sergeant, Sharon 1947 births Living people American genealogists 21st-century American historians