This month’s Volunteer of the Month is our newest Angel, Brenda Gudino! Brenda started as a research assistant, and when Laura put out the call to form a specially trained team to work cases with roots in Mexico and Puerto Rico, Brenda stepped up to become the first Angel on the team. Laura says, “Brenda has been such a gift to the DNAngels team. She specializes in the cases that most other search angels run from. She never hesitates to say yes when asked to take on a super hard case with lots of endogamy for the island of Puerto Rico. She blesses us with her bilingual abilities and jumps in on cases with Spanish ancestors. Thank you Brenda for being a blessing.
Brenda’s interest in genealogy began 33 years ago, when she had her first child. She began compiling a book about her Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, and realized she didn’t have a lot of information. She dug in and began her quest for more information, and eventually her love of discovering her own family roots turned outward to help others searching to complete their stories. Assistant Intake Team Lead, Lauren Nicole says that Brenda’s nomination as VoM is “a no brainer” and continues to say “I remember working with her on her first few cases when she was a researcher and I couldn’t be more impressed with where she is now. The progress she has made to become not only an Angel, but the leader of our Puerto Rican Team amazes me constantly. Her dedication to her clients is admirable and the amount of hours she puts in is astounding. Not only is Brenda an amazing Angel, she is an amazing human being and I am honored to call her my friend. I can’t wait to see what else Brenda does!” And Katharine Saunders, Assistant Research Team Lead said, “Brenda is a compassionate Angel who works hard every day for her clients. Her dedication extends beyond her own casework to many other DNAngels clients as Brenda also frequently attends the Zoom support groups. We are lucky to have her skills and expertise on our cases involving records from Puerto Rico and Mexico and her overall patience and determination are wonderful assets to our team.” Case Manager Rachel Kiley Trout says, “She volunteered for a challenging position as a member of the PR/Hispanic Team, and her devotion and determination was quickly evident as she rose to the Lead Angel of that team. Focusing her expertise on these cases has allowed us to serve more populations of testers. Brenda is a valuable Team member, often keeping an eye on unread Ancestry messages and passing notice along to the intended recipients. She is responsive to both clients and fellow volunteer’s posts, and she even makes time to attend client support zooms. Brenda also blew me away with her responses to the Earn Your Angel Wing’s Exam. I think she may have set the new gold standard there, as I considered throwing my own self-made answer key aside and just using hers to measure all others in the future.”
Brenda loves spending time with her 5 children and her darling granddaughter. She loves to travel, and her husband’s career in the Navy has taken her many places and on many adventures!
Volunteers of the Month – June 2023
