Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck, distinguished genealogical scholar, librarian, writer, educator, and lecturer, was born on May 26, 1945 in Vandalia, Illinois to Harry Earl Bockstruck and Olive Elsie Blankenship. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Biology and History from Greenville College in 1967. He holds a M.A. in Modern European History from Southern Illinois University (1969) and a M.S. in Library Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana (1973). His academic career was characterized by memberships in national honor societies: Beta Beta Beta (biological sciences) 1966, Phi Alpha Theta (history) 1967, Phi Kappa Phi (arts and sciences) 1969, and Beta Phi Mu (library science) 1972. In 1973 he received a certificate from the Institute Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck, distinguished genealogical scholar, librarian, writer, educator, and lecturer, was born on May 26, 1945 in Vandalia, Illinois to Harry Earl Bockstruck and Olive Elsie Blankenship. He graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Biology and History from Greenville College in 1967. He holds a M.A. in Modern European History from Southern Illinois University (1969) and a M.S. in Library Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana (1973). His academic career was characterized by memberships in national honor societies: Beta Beta Beta (biological sciences) 1966, Phi Alpha Theta (history) 1967, Phi Kappa Phi (arts and sciences) 1969, and Beta Phi Mu (library science) 1972. In 1973 he received a certificate from the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) at Samford University and in 1994 was named an Outstanding Alumnus of IGHR.
After earning his MLS degree in 1973, Bockstruck joined the genealogical staff at the Dallas Public Library. He served on the Board of the Dallas Genealogical Society (DGS) as liaison to the Dallas Public Library (DPL) for numerous years and oversaw the expansion of the Library’s genealogical collection. He deserves a lion’s share of the credit for elevating the DPL to a status of holding one of the leading genealogical collections in the United States. Bockstruck retired in 2009 after serving as Supervisor of the Genealogy Division of the Dallas Public Library for 25 years.
His teaching activities began in Kenya from 1969 to 1971 where he served as both teacher and librarian at Mombasa Baptist High School. From 1974 to 1991 he was an instructor in the School of Continuing Education, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. In 1974 he also joined the esteemed genealogical faculty of the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University and served in this capacity for many years. Bockstruck has lectured at numerous local and regional genealogical society venues and, beginning in 1994, he served on the faculty of the Genealogical Institute of Mid-America at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He was a frequent lecturer at national conferences, including repeated engagements at the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society.
Bockstruck authored several genealogical reference monographs published between 1996 and 2017: Henrico County, Virginia Orphans Court Records, 1755-1762 (1996); Virginia’s Colonial Soldiers (1996); Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants Awarded by State Governments (1996); Naval Pensioners of the United States, 1800-1851 (2002); Denizations and Naturalizations in the British Colonies in America, 1607-1775 (2005); Bounty and Donation Land Grants in British Colonial America (2007); The Name Is the Game: Onomatology and the Genealogist (2013); American Settlements and Migrations: A Primer for Genealogists and Family Historians (2017). In addition to his scholarly genealogical publications, Bockstruck wrote a weekly genealogical column, Family Tree, for the Dallas Morning News from 1991-1996. The compilation of these weekly columns, Family Tree: Weekly Newspaper Columns from the Dallas Morning News, was published by the Dallas Genealogical Society in 1996.
Bockstruck holds memberships in numerous hereditary and lineage societies and has served as a general officer in several of these. His memberships include: National Society Sons of the American Revolution, General Society Sons of the Revolution, General Society of Colonial Wars, Society of the Cincinnati, Jamestowne Society, Order of American of Armorial Ancestry, and Order of Founders and Patriots of America.
Bockstruck has received numerous distinguished awards for his achievements. He received the National Genealogical Society’s (NGS) Award of Merit in 1982 and was named an NGS Fellow in 1992. He received the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution 1989 History Award. Also in 1992, he received the Dallas County...more
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