After working for Ancestry.ca for 15 years, Lesley Anderson, spokesperson and community liaison, has decided to retire at the end of May.
When she joined Ancestry in 2007, Lesley was involved in the opening of the genealogy company’s Canadian office in Toronto.
In addition to being the face of Ancestry.ca, Lesley has been responsible for content acquisition and partnerships, the affiliate and advisory board programs, researching VIP family trees, and delivering numerous presentations at conferences and other genealogy events.
If you’ve researched Ancestry’s extensive Canadian collection, it’s likely you’ve benefitted from Lesley’s skill, knowledge and efforts to partner with archival centres, libraries, and other organizations to acquire permission to digitize their historical collections for subscribers.
Her enthusiasm for genealogy is infectious.
If you’ve attended a genealogy conference in the last 15 years, you likely had a chance to meet Lesley at the Ancestry booth and to attend her popular presentations. She has always been approachable and eager to listen to genealogists’ family history challenges and offer advice and encouragement.
In her retirement message posted on Facebook, Lesley wrote, “I’ve met many great people in our company and in the field who I can still call friends. I am very grateful for the experience where I could share my passion for genealogy and Ancestry!”
In retirement, Lesley plans to continue her personal family tree research and to do research for others.
Let’s hope Ancestry replaces Lesley in Canada, although the person who takes over will have a tough act to follow.
Thanks, Lesley, for helping so many of us with our research, whether it was through the collections you acquired for Ancestry or the lessons you taught us in your presentations. You’ll be missed.
