Our feature speaker, Colleen Fitzpatrick, PhD, is an internationally recognised forensic genealogist, the founder of Identifinders International. She explained in her presentation that she has been involved in high profile forensic cases, including the identification of the Unknown Child on the Titanic and the Amelia Earhart project; and that she is now the Forensic Genealogist on the Abraham Lincoln DNA Project. Colleen told that she has also been a key member of team that have exposed three international Holocaust literary frauds. Colleen's collaborations include the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, the US Army Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Office, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, the University of Arizona, Harvard Medical School and other noted professional organizations. She is a Fellow of the Society of Photoinstrumentation Engineers (SPIE), an Associate Member of the American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS).
Her presentation brought conclusion to two recent cases where she was able to identified an adoptee's mother based upon handwriting that was marked out by the county registrar office and the solving of who a mother was after a suicide and the techniques of tree triangulation. The mother's background was of deceit and lies that were establish after her death.
As a
world traveler and multi-lingual, Colleen specializes in international cases; she has researched in over 50 countries. Colleen assists
nonprofits, military organizations, attorneys, and law enforcement with cold
case work, forensic identification, and with locating hard-to-find individuals.
She has developed innovative DNA identification techniques that have benefited
Child Survivors of the Holocaust and adoptees who otherwise would have given up
hope of finding their birth parents.
Colleen lectures widely in the US,
Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
She has
appeared in hundreds of domestic and international newspapers and magazines, and
on international radio and television programs. These include the BBC World News Tonight, RTE Ireland
Television’s Nationwide, Radio New Zealand, CNN, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, More Magazine, Scientific
American, The Wall Street Journal,
Publisher’s Weekly, The Boston Globe,
The Melbourne Sun, The Denver
Post, The Seattle Times, and The Orange County Register. She is the author of three books: Forensic
Genealogy, DNA & Genealogy,
and The Dead Horse Investigation: Forensic Photo Analysis for Everyone, which were available to purchase after the meeting. Here is a photo where she was personalizing with her signature.
