Katherine Fennelly’s academic specializations are in demography, public health, and immigration policy. After learning of her Jewish heritage as an adult she began a very different kind of research—a study of the life of her maternal grandfather, Francis (Ferenc) Kalnay, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who arrived in the United States 100 years ago. The result is Family Declassified, a book in which she describes how Kalnay became the head of an elite espionage unit for the Allied Forces and an award-winning children’s book author. Fennelly will discuss her motives, sources, and methods, including six years reviewing previously unexamined government records and conducting personal interviews and genealogical searches, to piece together the life of a man who hid his Jewish identity, the nature of his work as a spy, and the murder of his sister and nephew by Hungarian Nazis.

Katherine Fennelly is an emeritus professor at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. She has an M.S., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Her site is https://www.katherinefennelly.com/.

We are pleased to welcome Katherine to discuss her research, but it should be noted that JGSO is not specifically promoting the purchase of her book.

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