Elizabeth Shown Mills

Who is Elizabeth Shown Mills?

Elizabeth Shown Mills, a native of Cleveland, Mississippi,is a genealogist and historical writer who has spent her life studying Southern culture and the relationships between people, emotional as well as genetic. A faculty member and course director at the Samford University Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research, Mills is a past president of both the American Society of Genealogists and the (international) Board for the Certification of Genealogists. She was the long-term editor of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) Quarterly, is a past president and fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, and a past president and current trustee of the (international) Board for Certification of Genealogists. Mills is the author of a dozen books and over 500 articles published by both academic and popular presses in genealogy, history, literature, and sociology. She has delivered over 1000 lectures nationally and internationally, has appeared on radio and TV talk shows on three continents, and was featured on both the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)'s 20th anniversary and 30th anniversary specials on the novel Roots and the PBS series "Ancestors." Her best known works are the 2004 Isle of Canes (q.v.), a four-generation historicalnovel based on Mills's research in the archives of six nations, and Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Cyberspace to Artifacts, which earned the "Best Reference Work 2007" designation from Library Journal.