ABOUT ME
Introduction
Joel Cole, PMP, was born and raised in Italy. He has been involved with Italian family history for over 30 years. He accompanied his father, Trafford, on his first genealogical research trip at age 15, and has been fascinated by family history ever since.
He has worked as a researcher for over 20 years, visiting almost every State Archive in Italy and nearly 1,000 parish archives. He is trained in paleography, having taken several courses in Italy, and has studied Latin for over 10 years to aid in interpreting historical documents.
Joel has presented at many international genealogical conferences on Italian family history and has conducted extensive research for private companies using civil records, parish and diocesan Catholic records, notarial records, and more. Since 2015, he has lived in Utah, working for FamilySearch in a variety of roles. He is currently the content strategist for Southern Europe, including Italy. Joel is married to his wife, Sava, and they have two children, Andrea and Joshua.