"Paul Schultz's recommendation for numismatic researchers to familiarize themselves with genealogy techniques and tools is an excellent suggestion. To gather data on America's 2,850 engravers, diesinkers and medalists, I took a college course on genealogy. That led me to join the local genealogy club. See their website: http://members.aol.com/genclub/nvctc.htm

I thought I was a purdy gud researcher until I came in contact with a lot of little ol' grandmothers who tossed around complex genealogical concepts as Census Soundex and ahnentafel files.

Their knowledge of techniques and sources was quite advanced. But they were quite willing to share their knowledge and furnished me with numerous tips. And the club's field trips revealed lots of nearby resources.

These newly acquired skills led me to find data often on obscure coin and medal artists. Example: personal data on Salathiel Ellis, who created four presidential, two military and the first Lifesaving medal for the Philadelphia Mint, is quite obscure. Yet I found the names of his parents, the fact he had eight brothers and sisters, but his place of birth is, as yet unknown (it could be Vermont or Canada, as some directories say). Also he trained Joseph Willson (19 years his junior) to do cameo cutting and relief modeling. For the Mint, Ellis would design and model the obverse portraits, Willson would do the reverses.

But one directory is wrong on Ellis (Groce & Wallace says he was born 1860) where it should be 1806. Genealogy research leads me to the correct data."