Brenton Simons Receives an Honorary OBE
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Brenton Simons Receives an Honorary OBE
Brenton Simons Receives an Honorary OBE
November 6, 2023—Boston, Massachusetts
For his work over thirty years in service to Anglo-American history, D. Brenton Simons, President and CEO of American Ancestors/New England Historic Genealogical Society (American Ancestors), has been accorded a special honor from the United Kingdom. He was appointed an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by King Charles III, which was announced as part of the King’s 2023 Special Honours on October 26, 2023. The OBE award recognizes distinguished achievement in any field by a notable practitioner and is part of a British order of chivalry established by King George V in 1917.
In response to the OBE award, Simons replied that he was filled with gratitude to “a wide array of talented colleagues . . . on both sides of the Atlantic who have inspired me and made my work a joy of the last three decades.”
Advancement of Anglo-American History
Simons’s longtime efforts in advancement of Anglo-American history have included an array of scholarship, programming, and outreach activities. He has led this far-reaching work at American Ancestors, including new books, heritage and research tours, online databases, educational programs, public relations, and other projects dealing with the British peopling of New England, the UK ancestry of Americans, and activities in recognition of important UK cultural figures.
I cherish our historical ties to the United Kingdom, just as I also am very proud of our groundbreaking work in reaching diverse peoples of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and cultures, and providing new pathways for everyone to engage in history and genealogy.
A ceremony of investiture for Simons will occur in 2024 when he will be presented with the gold OBE medal; he can now use the post-nomial acronym OBE in recognition of the special honor from the United Kingdom.
On October 19, 2023, Simons also received the Washington Irving Medal for Literary Excellence from the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. This award especially noted his books Witches, Rakes, and Rogues and Boston Beheld, and it was conferred upon him in a ceremony in New York City. Past recipients of the Washington Irving Medal include past American Ancestors honorees and authors David McCullough, David Hackett Fischer, and Nathaniel Philbrick, among many others.
In addition to serving as President and CEO of American Ancestors, Simons is also President of the American Patrons (formerly the American Friends) of St. George’s and the Descendants of the Knights of the Garter, a charity that supports the historic fabric and living community of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle; and he is President of the International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences, which will host its firstever Congress in the United States in Boston, September 24–28, 2024.
About American Ancestors
American Ancestors® is a national nonprofit center for family history, heritage & culture based in Boston, Massachusetts, that has been setting the gold standard for genealogical research since its founding in 1845. Today, American Ancestors serves 400K+ members and subscribers through AmericanAncestors.org, one of the world’s largest online collections of family history resources. In 2025, American Ancestors launched the Family Heritage Experience, an interactive, state-of-the-art exhibition that introduces visitors to the joy of family history research, located at 97 Newbury Street at our headquarters in Boston. American Ancestors is also home to the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center, which preserves New England’s Jewish history, and 10 Million Names, a project dedicated to finding the names of the enslaved men, women, and children in pre- and post-colonial America before emancipation.
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