Last week, the news broke that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie both have a familial connection to this year’s Democratic Presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. This news begs the question for many, “who could I be related to? And how do I find out?” Enter American Mensa’s upcoming Colloquium, Tracking Granny’s Granny: The Genealogy Quest, this September in Salt Lake City, Utah.


Hosted by the Mensa Education & Research Foundation, members of Mensa and non-members alike will gather at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center to learn various ways to define their family research goals, organize their research and share tricks and tactics to finding information about long-lost relatives and distant cousins.

The Colloquium will take place on September 12-14 and will feature educational sessions guided by experts in the field of genealogy. Some of the topics include old photo research, ways to reconstruct the lives of distant relatives through research, helpful ways to use the Internet, and information about DNA research. Attendees will also be able to spend time at Salt Lake City’s historic Family History Library. Registration is open to the public.

“Research shows that 60% of Americans are interested in exploring their family history,” said Greg Timmers, President of the Mensa Education & Research Foundation. “The upcoming Mensa Colloquium will provide an educational forum for those interested in researching and solving the mysteries of their family trees. We are excited to bring Mensa members, experts and other interested guests to our event to offer this unique forum for learning and sharing.”

Colloquium 2008 is American Mensa’s twelfth Colloquium since the inaugural event in 1982. Previous Colloquiums have addressed topics such as humor, cosmology, politics, medicine, gifted children, and consciousness.

For more than thirty years, the Mensa Education & Research Foundation has been a strong voice in supporting intelligence. The Foundation fosters the best and brightest through scholarships and awards, and encourages research and intellectual inquiry through the Mensa Research Journal and various Colloquiums. Governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees, the Mensa Foundation is a 501c(3) organization and is funded by support from American Mensa, Mensa members and other charitable donations.