A well-written writer, Mr. Pollock has authored, edited, published, contributed to, and/or served as a guest columnist for various professional journals, magazines, and local newspapers.
RICHMOND, VA, January 15, 2024 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Michael Elwood Pollock has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Mr. Pollock is an experienced genealogist and historian who founded Anquestory Genealogical Services. Based in Richmond, Virginia, his company provides clients with genealogical research and consulting services. Frequently working with clients interested in learning more about their ancestors, particularly African Americans, Virginia Indians, and military personnel from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, Mr. Pollock focuses on burial sites, marital, birth, and death records. He also works to retrieve unclaimed estates and facilitate the probate of wills and the clearing of land titles. Notably, he has worked with such prominent companies as Walmart and AT&T, as well as McGuireWoods LLC, recognized as one of the largest law firms in Virginia. In 2005, he was part of a team challenging the probate of the will of Richard Kenneth Clements of NYC, W&M Class of 1936, discovering in the process that the prior will had left the entire estate, valued at $7 million, to William & Mary, also Pollock's alma mater, with the stipulation that it be used to establish an endowment for academically qualified students without the financial resources to attend the College, ironically a goal of the then newly inaugurated president of William & Mary, but the team was unable to get that prior will probated.
In addition to overseeing Anquestory since 1999, Mr. Pollock has been an expert genealogist with ExpertGenealogy since 2014, a specialist for GenealogyFreelancers from 2011 until its dissolution in 2022, and through such organizations as Genealogical Alliance for Reciprocal Benefit, Global Alliance of Genealogical Professionals and AnQueStories, worked to establish a world-wide collaborative advertising network for genealogists and related specialists as an alternative to Ancestry ExpertConnect. Further, given its clear symmetry to his forensic genealogy work, Mr. Pollock holds a license as an independent associate of PrePaid Legal Services, Inc. to market its LegalShield and IdentityShield programs across the United States and Canada.
A well-written writer, Mr. Pollock has authored, edited, published, contributed to, and/or served as a guest columnist for various professional journals, magazines, and local newspapers, even digital media, his being an expert contributor for Archives.com since 2011. His most recent work was transcribing, in 2014, Gloucester Circuit (Virginia) Methodist Church Records, 1835-1837, a companion volume to his earlier Gloucester County, Virginia, Methodist Church Records, published in 2007, both notable for details unusual for Methodist records, and ironically missing from civil records where they are more typically found. Since 2014 he has been working to complete another church-oriented work, A Schism? In Virginia? The Definitive Account of the Creation of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, in 1820.
Mr. Pollock's most recognized work throughout his career included his contributions to Virginia Electric & Power v Richard F. Tate et al. This case took place in the civil division of the Wise County Circuit Court in Virginia in 2008. It included completing the Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center in Wise County, a $1.8 billion project that garnered recognition as one of the highest-valued projects in which a genealogist played a key role. Mr. Pollock was tasked with conducting research and providing a strategy to secure the critical permits necessary to complete the project, resulting in the establishment of a new Virginia legal precedent that may well be adopted elsewhere in the future.
Highly educated, Mr. Pollock received a Bachelor of Arts in government and Russian studies from the College of William & Mary in 1973 and a Master of Arts in Russian area studies from Georgetown University in 1978. Well-qualified in his field, he garnered credentials as an expert witness in genealogy in Chesterfield County, Virginia, in 1995, Wise County, Virginia, in 2008, and New Haven County, Connecticut, in 2022. Active in his professional community, Mr. Pollock was a founding member of the Association of Professional Genealogists, of which he has since resigned.
For over 50 years an advocate for his community, he has served as an Officer of Elections in multiple jurisdictions where he has lived, most recently for Henrico County, worked as a Personal Care Attendant for multiple disabled persons, played French horn with the Richmond Concert Band (2000-2005), and remains affiliated with the music program of his alma mater after serving two terms as president, four terms as a member of the board of trustees, and equipment manager until 2008 of the William & Mary Alumni Band Organization, which he helped to found in 1969 while still a student!
Mr. Pollock was recognized locally as the Correspondent of the Day in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2000. He was previously recognized with the Order of Kentucky Colonels in 1994, a prestigious honor bestowed by the Governor of Kentucky.
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