Amanda Opalenik
Database Projects Coordinator
Amanda assists with creating and improving the genealogical databases. She started at NEHGS as an indexing volunteer in 2020 and then joined the database team in 2021 as a digitization assistant. She grew up in western Massachusetts and has a B.A. in Greek and Latin Languages with a minor in French from UMass, Amherst. In her spare time, she loves baking, creating her own recipes, visiting museums, and finding unique antiques and vintage items.
Rachel Adams
Database Services Volunteer Coordinator
Rachel coordinates the web teams volunteers in scanning and indexing material that goes on the database. She started out as an intern at NEHGS in 2018, before joining the staff full time. She grew up in Connecticut and has a B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in printmaking and museum education.
Samuel Paine Sturgis, III
Digital Collections Administrator
Sam was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Psychology from Eastern Michigan University and worked as a Human Factors researcher in automotive safety for 13 years. He entered the field of commercial software development in 1983 and acted as software developer and development manager at Wang Laboratories and The Foxboro Company. Sam joined the NEHGS staff in 2005.
Sam’s interest in genealogy began shortly after moving to Massachusetts, when he and his family chanced upon the Sturgis Library in Barnstable, during a vacation on Cape Cod. There he discovered that he is a descendent of the Sturgis family that settled on Cape Cod in the 1630s.