Donna B Gawell

Donna Gawell is an author, genealogist, and family historian. Her first historical novel "In the Shadow of Salem" was released in 2018, by Heritage Beacon, an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas.

Donna is the author of "Travel Back to Your Roots" a book meant to inspire descendants of European immigrants to begin research in genealogy. The goal of the book is to allow readers to find enough about their ancestors in order to visit the ancestral villages and possibly meet cousins or other relatives like she did in 2014 and 2016. Her most recent publication is "The ABC's of Crime and Punishment in Puritan New England."

Donna likes to tell people she began her professional writing career in a cemetery. Her very first article "Charles C. Chapman" was published in a local Medina, Ohio newsletter for “Friends of the Cemetery,” a local non-profit. She has also published numerous articles in history and museum journals.

She holds volunteer leadership roles with Samaritan’s Purse as a Drop Off Center Coordinator for Operation Christmas Child and is a volunteer coordinator for International Friendships, Inc. Donna is also a lecturer on genealogy and family history writing.

Donna earned a master’s degree in Speech Pathology and worked in the field of education for over thirty years. She lives in Westerville, Ohio with her husband Mark when not traveling to research her ancestral homelands in Europe and New England. Her new website, “DonnaGawell.com,” allows her to meet readers with similar interests in historical fiction, history, genealogy and world travel.