Family Historian

Edna Gail Bush, a native of Great Neck, New York, now lives in Rockville, Maryland. She has served as a Family Historian for over thirty years. She has always been curious about her ancestry, especially trying to document family lore and how it related to the history in the state and counties of her ancestors. Gail’s parents, her grandparents, and most of her great grandparents were born in Edgefield County, South Carolina. She is a member of the Old Edgefield District Genealogical Society (OEDGS), the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), and the National Genealogical Society (NGS). Since 2007, Gail has had articles published in The Quill, the newsletter of the OEDGS, Homeplace, the newsletter of the now defunct Old Edgefield District African-American Genealogical Society (OEDAAGS), and, The Carolina Herald, the official publication of the South Carolina Genealogical Society (SCGS).

Gail is retired from the New York State government’s former Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. For 34 years she served in increasingly responsible positions starting as a Recreation Therapist, then becoming a Treatment Team Leader, and finally a Contract Administrator. She received her Bachelor of Science from the State University of New York at Cortland, and her Master of Science from the New School in Social Research in New York City.

Gail has self-published books for her immediate family, specifically, The Last Days of Our Father, Spirit Songs: A Lifetime of Lyrics and Poems, and A Grandmother’s Blessing and Prayer, all in 2006. In addition, she helped her niece and grand-nieces to write books, All About Aunts, in 1997 and Being Nine and Being in the Middle in 2014.