About
Stone House Historical Research, LLCCatherine Becker Wiest Desmarais, CG, owner
Catherine has a Master’s Degree in Education, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Vermont. She is a national level genealogical educator and is active in the genealogical community. She served from 2014-2017 as the vice president of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and has volunteered for APG’s New England chapter for more than a decade. She served as a board member of the Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy (CAFG) from 2012 to 2015 and coordinated their mentor and volunteer initiative programs. She instructed at CAFG’s Forensic Genealogy Institute from 2012 to 2015. She teaches at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) and at
The Original Stone House
The stone house that inspired the company’s name was built in the 1850s by William Bair, a Pennsylvania stonemason and the great-great grandfather of Catherine Becker Wiest Desmarais. The search for William Bair (1812-1893) and his stone house reignited Catherine’s earlier passion for genealogy research, and taught her to build lineage connections as carefully and sturdily as her grandfather constructed his stone houses.