Nancy V. Kelly's interest in local history developed as she grew up at Sepascot Home Farm in Rhinebeck. She is a graduate of Cornell University with a major in education and has served as Rhinebeck Town Historian since 1997. She is the author of A Brief History of Rhinebeck and is registrar of the Rhinebeck Chapter of the DAR; she is also a member of the Dutchess County Historical Society, the Dutchess County Genealogical Society, the Rhinebeck Historical Society and the Palatine Farmstead committee. She is chairman of the Consortium of Rhinebeck History, a group of the local historical organizations seeking to establish and maintain a database of archival material and provide a local history center at the Starr Library. Nancy and her husband, Arthur Kelly, founded Kinship in 1968, writing and publishing genealogical and historical books. In recognition of their work, they were 2007 recipients of the Helen W. Reynolds Award from the Dutchess County Historical Society.