Ruth Merriman

Ruth Lapioli Merriman is an emeritus Accredited Italian Genealogist with ICAPGen. She retired from FamilySearch nearly nine years ago after working 35 years as cataloger, research specialist, and manager of the Family History Library International floor in Salt Lake City. Throughout those 35 years she worked with records from many parts of the world, but mostly she worked with Italian records: analyzing them; cataloging them; assisting others with their own research in Italy; and teaching locally, nationally, and internationally. Although she has retired from FamilySearch, she has not retired from family history. Her father’s side of the family hails from several towns and villages in the provinces of L’Aquila and Pescara where she has visited several times. She has a neurotic fear of flying (just ask her husband) but her love of family history gets her on the plane and over to Italy – that’s how obsessed she is.