Donna Lee Siemiatkoski

Donna Lee (Holt) Siemiatkoski was the daughter of Raymond L. and Mary (Simpson) Holt. She married Eugene Siemiatkoski in 1968. She was a leading professional genealogist in Connecticut. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Honors Program of the University of Connecticut in English and received her Masters in American Politics from Columbia University. She worked at the Connecticut Historical Society, where she developed the volunteer program. She became an independent professional genealogist specializing in Connecticut River Valley families.

Donna's contribution to Connecticut genealogy included her leadership in several efforts. She was founder and first president of the Descendants of the Founders of Ancient Windsor; co-founder and first president of the Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council; and served on the board of the Connecticut Society of Genealogists. She was an organizing president of the Daniel Bissell chapter of the Children of the American Revolution, and a regent of the Abigail Ellsworth chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Donna's professional career included her service as genealogist to the Foote Family Association and to the Welles Family Association. For the Welles group, she arranged a trip to England to see family sites in Warwickshire, England. She had numerous individual genealogy clients.

To commemorate her service to the genealogy community, two programs were put into place. The Connecticut Professional Genealogists Council created the Donna Holt Siemiatkoski Acquisition Fund, a charitable fund, which buys books for Connecticut's genealogical repositories. The New England Regional Genealogical Consortium instituted the Donna Holt Siemiatkoski Volunteer of the Year Award, given to people nominated by member societies in recognition of their volunteer service.