Brenda Gudino is a Search Angel and Puerto Rico Team Lead, and a member of National Genealogical Society (NGS), International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG), Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), Sociedad Puertorriquena de Genealogica (SPG). She received her certificate (CG) in Genealogical Research from Boston University. She is presently working on her portfolio to begin the pursuit of accreditation through the International Commission for Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen).
Brenda’s interest in genealogy began 33 years ago with the birth of her first child. She was compiling a book of her Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage and quickly realized she didn’t know very much. It became a full-time passion when her paternal grandmother passed away two years later, who was the matriarch of a family of 96 people who attended the funeral – all descendants of one diminutive woman. A wealth of stories and history was buried along with her. Brenda soon learned that access to Puerto Rican and Mexican history, documents, and resources was greatly limited, and the urgency to learn everything she could, and become an asset to other Latinos, became one of her goals for the next 30 years. She worked from home, building other people’s genealogical trees, and working on their research. With genealogy evolving to include DNA, Brenda’s interests immediately expanded to include this cutting-edge research. Upon seeing her DNA results, the ethnicity breakdown opened her eyes to other countries she had no clue were part of her heritage. Upon learning that many of her surprise DNA matches were unaware of their family history, and there was no one willing to work with the possible endogamy and pedigree collapse, she decided to educate herself and take on these challenging cases.
Inspired by Cece Moore’s mention that there was a need for genetic genealogists to work on Hispanic cases, Brenda joined many groups, started taking classes, reading books, collaborating with other genealogists to learn all she could and realized she was adept at solving these mysteries, but it was a long and arduous process. It was through one of these groups that she first learned of the wonderful work DNAngels was accomplishing and there need for assistance with Puerto Rican and other Hispanic cases, from people with specialized knowledge, Brenda decided to join the research team, but quickly realized her desire for solving these cases was too great. Her excitement for working with the organization gives her great purpose, as she firmly believes everyone deserves to know their truth. Her two great loves are her love of all things genealogy, and her family.
Brenda has been married to her wonderful husband for 39 years, whose career in the Navy has taken them all over the United States and around the world. She is a proud stay-at-home mother to 5 beautiful children, whose ages range from 23 to 33 years. She’s also a doting abuela to a darling 4 year-old granddaughter, and proud Mother of an amazing son-in-law. When she can, she indulges in her love for traveling and seeing new places.
