Officer Bios

ROBERT B. NOLES
Director

Robert "Rob" B. Noles was first elected as an Officer of the KKNFA at the 2000 Reunion in Dover, Delaware. Rob has been a member of the KKNFA since 1998.

Rob retired from McDermott, Inc. (The Babcock & Wilcox Company) in 1994. After playing golf extensively for the first couple of years of his retirement, Rob began to use his computer skills to collate and document his family’s history (and the history of his wife’s family as well) from the various records and family notes collected over many years. Rob thought he would simply organize what was known and conduct some basic research, write a report or two and be finished within a few weeks. Ha! Thirteen years later, Rob’s genealogical research and documentation efforts have expanded beyond the traditional lines of his and his wife’s grandparents to include any and all lines of his and his wife’s ancestors. (Note: just going back 10 generations involves over 1,000 direct ancestors for an individual).

In addition to the traditional family genealogies, Rob has been adding genealogies for many well known families and famous personalities to his database; e.g., U.S. Presidents, Declaration of Independence Signers, Pilgrims, Western Civilization Royalty, Magna Carta Signers, the Popes, the Bible personalities, etc. And of course, all Knowles (all spellings) progenitors an their descendants are a target for Rob's research and documentation. His goal for the KKNFA is to identify the genealogy of all the Knowles (all spellings) who have lived in the U.S. prior to the early years of the 20th century. As a result, Rob’s genealogical database already includes over a quarter of a million individuals.

Recently it has become apparent from both genealogical studies as well as mathematical analysis that most, if not everyone, in the Western world is descended from Charlemagne. The challenge is proving your own connection. Rob says, “That’s the game of genealogy. Genealogy is the ultimate hobby; you never run out of ancestors to collect.”

Rob was born and raised in Louisville, Jefferson Co., Kentucky. His NOLES family had been in western Kentucky for 100 years before his dad moved to Louisville after college in 1928. His NOLES ancestors were in Lincoln Co., Tennessee; Oglethorpe Co., Georgia; and Wake Co., North Carolina for 100 years prior to arriving in Kentucky. Recent genetic genealogy test results identify his Knowles ancestors were from Baltimore, Maryland in the early 1700s.

Rob graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1963 as a mechanical engineer. He joined The Babcock & Wilcox Company that year and spent the next 25 years engaged in the design and manufacture of nuclear power plant steam generation equipment. Most of his nuclear efforts were with B&W’s Naval Nuclear Program that has provided the propulsion equipment for nearly all of the U.S. Nuclear fleet, past and present. The current fleet of Nimitz class aircraft carriers, as well as the Ohio and Los Angeles Class submarines have nuclear steam generators that were designed and manufactured during Rob’s tenure with B&W.

Rob also served McDermott, Inc. as the manager of their Washington D.C. Government Affairs Office. The McDermott Washington D.C. Office was responsible for lobbying efforts for energy issues and securing government research contracts. His last assignment with McDermott before retirement was in the New Orleans area as one of the 12 DynMcDermott Directors brought in to manage the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Rob has been married twice and has 3 children and one step-child. His current spouse for 28 years is the former Dyann L. Hersey. They were married in Rockford, Illinois in 1977. Their daughter Amy, graduated from LSU in 2002 with a degree in microbiology and currently works at the University of Arizona involved with breast cancer research. Rob’s two sons from his first marriage (to the former Joan M. Myers), Robert and Geoffrey, are located in Chicago and Louisville respectively. They both have jobs in computer related fields.

Besides his basic genealogical interests, Rob has a significant interest in history, genetics, archeology and paleontology, all in support of genealogy.

In addition to his volunteer positions with the KKNFA as Historian, Webmaster, Librarian and DNA Project Manager, Rob is the First Vice-President, Webmaster and Newsletter Editor for the St. Tammany (Parish, Louisiana) Genealogical Society (STGS) and a Director and Webmaster of the Huxford Genealogical Society and Library in Homerville, Georgia (www.huxford.com).

Rob manages nearly two dozen Genetic Genealogy Projects, including surname projects for many family surnames plus three regional projects; i.e., Wiregrass Georgia Project (southeast Georgia), West Florida Parishes Project (southeast Louisiana), and the Lumbee Indian Tribe Project. He is also a co-manager for the Lost Colony Project (from Roanoke Island - 1587).

Although Rob was not actively researching ancestors in Louisiana, where he currently resides, he felt participation in the local genealogical society would be worthwhile for him and the Society. He was first elected as an Officer of the STGS in 1999. During the years he has been an Officer for the St. Tammany Society he has expanded his participation to include the development of the STGS Web site, and the Editor of the Society's Newsletter. Rob also was successful in establishing the St. Tammany Parish Library System as an independent LDS Family History Center.

Rob’s personal genealogy library consists of thousands of genealogy books and CD-ROMs and an estimated two million genealogical documents and related correspondence. His genealogy filing system requires over 2,000 binders, a fleet of filing cabinets and four computers.

Rob’s personal genealogical library specializes in Knowles and other family lines of course, but also includes a comprehensive coverage of southeast Georgia for the 18th and 19th centuries. Rob says, “Do not start researching in southeast Georgia without talking to him first.”

Hobbies, besides genealogy include travel, golf, photography, computers, plus coin and stamp collecting, all of which suffer because of his genealogy efforts.

Bio Issued December 2008