VISUAL DIRECTION —
EYEBROW LINE —
HoldenWorks Genealogical Investigations
Est. 2023 · Two-Person Research Practice

Tracing, Teaching & Telling

Your Family's History

HoldenWorks conducts genealogical research for hire, generates family narratives, mentors and instructs, and offers courses, workshops and podcasts aimed at leveling up clients' genealogical chops.

Built on the foundation of eighty years of combined teaching — with over twenty years designing and delivering curriculum for JewishGen and now with over two dozen clients — we have extensive experience in research, writing and publication.

Case File HoldenWorks
Genealogical
Investigations Est. 2023
What We Offer

Four ways to work with us

Click on each title for further information.

Research for Hire We investigate a specific research question or focused set of questions and deliver a written report.
→ Specializations
Request a Research Feasibility Assessment
Project Doctor You’ve done some of the work. We complete the remaining field research, and/or take your primary research and produce the written product — a report, a tree, a coffee-table book, a narrative family history, a forensic analysis.
Mentoring Help conceptualizing a research project before you run it yourself — or hands-on oversight as you go, with a consultant teaching alongside your research.
Describe Your Project
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Genealogical Skills Building Workbooks, mini courses, workshops, moderated discussions, and podcasts on topics such as:
  • organizing your research projects (e.g., research logs, building folders, pre-writing, labeling, coding)
  • mastering the GPS for non-professionals
  • using AI as a research collaborator
  • exploring genres of genealogical writing
  • understanding and integrating context
  • developing indirect proofs
  • crafting useful citations
  • weaving maps into narratives
  • building discrepancy charts
The Practice

Founded in 2023 by mother-son duo, Nancy and Todd Holden — career educators, professional researchers, trained genealogists — with a combined 80 years of experience teaching, researching, mentoring, writing, and delivering family histories.

Nancy Collier Holden

Nancy Collier Holden

Co-Founder

  • Nancy has researched her own family lines back to eleventh-century rabbinic scholars on one side and records from the 1700s on the other.
  • Her investigations have taken her into archives in Grodno, Lithuania, Latvia, and Odessa, and required her to learn Hebrew, Rashi script, Polish, and Cyrillic along the way.
  • She has served as President of the Jewish Genealogical Societies of both Los Angeles and Orange County
  • Editor of the genealogical journals Roots-Key and Shorashim, she was named IAJGS Volunteer of the Year in 2023.
  • As Education Director of JewishGen for the past decade, she has designed and taught an array of skills-based courses for hundreds of genealogical researchers.
  • A particular specialty is mentoring individual clients, helping them break through brick walls as they research their family histories.
  • She brings that archival wizardry and creative problem-solving to client casework, particularly in Belarus, Ukraine, and the former Pale of Settlement.
Todd Holden

Todd Holden, Ph.D.

Co-Founder

  • Todd holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Social Science from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a B.A. in Social Ecology from UC Irvine.
  • He holds genealogical certification from Boston University and the ProGen Study Group.
  • A former tenured professor, he is trained in research design, data collection, evidence analysis, mentoring, and writing for publication — skills he now applies to client-centered genealogical projects.
  • Among his numerous publications include academic textbooks, journal articles, a regular column on Japanese popular culture, a travelblog, literary nonfiction, philosophical detection, and science fiction.
  • He currently teaches courses at JewishGen — in particular, writing-for-genealogists and advanced AI in genealogical investigation.
  • At HoldenWorks he has conducted investigations in the United States, Galicia, Poland, the Soviet Union (now Belarus and Russia), and Bessarabia (now Romania and Ukraine).