Sharon Sergeant (born 1947) is an American

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

who specializes in researching and tracing international fraud cases, property settlements, and provenance of artifact collections. She also conducts biographical research for historians, publishers, authors, and journalists. Sergeant attended Northeastern University and received a bachelor's degree from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

. She lives in

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, ...

. She was involved in exposing two high profile literary frauds in 2008, Misha Defonseca and

Herman Rosenblat Herman A. Rosenblat ( 1929 – February 5, 2015) was a Polish-born American author, known for writing a fictitious Holocaust memoir titled ''Angel at the Fence'',Rosenblat, Herman (2009) ''Angel at the Fence'' Berkley Hardcover, purporting t ...

.Judith Rosen
"Does Publishing Need Genealogists?"
''Publishers Weekly'', Jan. 12, 2009.

Career

Sergeant is Director of Programs for the Massachusetts Genealogical Council, and has been an adjunct professor at Boston University, lecturing on problem-solving techniques and technology in genealogy. She is a forensic genealogist at IdentiFinders and owner of AncestralManor.com, and a systems engineering consultant at General Voice and Epodworks. She has worked in the fields of provenance, transportation systems,

historical migration :'' This article focusses on prehistorical migration since the Neolithic period until AD 1800. See Early human migrations for migration prior to the Neolithic, History of human migration for modern history, and human migration for contemporary mig ...

patterns, and artificial intelligence applications.

Cases

Sergeant and Colleen Fitzpatrick led the team that exposed as a hoax Misha Defonseca's bestselling book '' Misha: A Memoir of the Holocaust Years'' (Surviving with Wolves). She also worked with the team that exposed Herman Rosenblat's book, '' Angel at the Fence'' as a fraudulent account of his time as a concentration camp survivor.Caleb Daniloff, "Untrue stories: a Genealogist Reveals the Truth About Three Holocaust Memoirs: They're Fiction" ''Bostonia'' Summer 200

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References

External links

Identifinders International

Northeastern University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sergeant, Sharon 1947 births Living people American genealogists 21st-century American historians