About

LaDonna Garner, M.A.
LaDonna Garner, M.A.

LaDonna Garner, M.A. is a Historic Consultant —  Historic Preservationist & Professional Genealogist — focused on historical preservation and genealogical research in and outside Southeast Missouri. She instructs and lectures on both subjects at colleges, conferences, libraries, society events, and online workshops. Garner is an active member of numerous organizations in leadership and volunteer capacities.

Researching her family history for nearly 40 years, she is passionate about recording historic minority communities and cemeteries, genealogy education, archive & public record access, protecting our landscapes through historic preservation, and cemetery restoration. She is also a Licensed Veterinary Technician with a devotion to heritage animals.

Leafseeker Consulting is the independent research firm of LaDonna Garner, M.A. Invested in Recording & Restoring the Past provides a generational bridge to the legacies of our ancestors.

“Only through understanding and compassion of the landscape environment

will we learn how to interact with it, respect it, and preserve it.” — LaDonna G.

speaking

Interviews, Publications & In the News

Press Kit for public announcements

Collegiate Education

Genealogical Education, Certificates & Credentials

  • National Genealogical Society American Genealogy Home Study Course (2005)
  • Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research (2006, 2007, 2008)
  • National Institute of Genealogy Research (2009)
  • Certified GenealogistSM, Board of Certification for Genealogists® (2006 – 2016)
  • Numerous ongoing classes, conferences, webinars, and workshops to the present.

Projects

Her current project concerns recording and mapping minority communities in S.E. Missouri. Garner is passionately merging genealogy and historic preservation for a greater understanding of people, places, and cultural heritage.

Garner’s love for cemeteries started in childhood while sitting and reading in the quietness of local burial grounds. Her ventures into cemetery preservation were inspired by an interest in family lineage and Founder & first Secretary of the Mt. Zion Cemetery Board to preserve Mount Zion Cemetery in Festus, Missouri. The cemetery was established by African American settlers, including her ancestors, in circa 1880s, and closed in circa 1973. She continues to honor its inhabitants’ legacy through historical research.

Select Memberships & Associations (Current & Former)