Linda Harms Okazaki is a fourth-generation Californian who is passionate about teaching people of all ages to research, document, and share their family histories. Her areas of interest include the western U.S., upstate New York, England, Australia, Japanese Americans, and the use of DNA in genealogy. Since 2012, she has been researching her husband’s ancestry, documenting his family in both the U.S. and Japan. A charter member of the Nikkei Genealogical Society, Linda also works as a consultant for Ancestry.com’s ProGenealogists and Densho.org, and is a featured columnist for the Nichi Bei Weekly. Her column, “Finding Your Nikkei Roots,” is published bimonthly, and her guide, “Finding Your Japanese Roots,” was updated in 2020.

Linda is the author of numerous articles, including the National Genealogical Society’s “Paper Sons and Picture Brides,” co-authored with Grant Din, and “Japanese American Research,” published in the New York Researcher. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, the Genealogical Speakers Guild, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Linda is also a past president of the California Genealogical Society.