One of the best-known genealogists in the country, Jim Warren is a professional writer and researcher. A partner in the research firm of Warren, Carmack & Associates, his research specialties include tracing immigrant, American Indian, and Irish ancestors, New England, Midwestern and Southern families, and on-site U.S. research. Jim co-authored Your Guide to the Family History Library and Getting the Most Mileage from Genealogical Research Trips. A full-time professional for the past eighteen years, his research base is the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. He also conducts extensive on-site research across the country, at the National Archives, and in Ireland and the British Isles.

Jim's warm and humorous style have made him a popular seminar and after-dinner speaker at annual national conferences and state and local seminars since 1992. From 1995 to 2003 he co-administered and taught the "Discover Your Family History" series of classes hosted by the Minnesota Historical Society. For seven years he was Course Coordinator of the annual Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy's American Genealogy Records and Resources course, where classroom instruction is combined with "hands-on" assistance to students in the Family History Library.

Jim has been an active volunteer in national genealogical, historical, and professional organizations. A former president of the Irish Genealogical Society International, Jim also served as a trustee of the Association of Professional Genealogists, as president of the Minnesota Genealogical Society, and is currently a member of the National Genealogical Society's Health and Heredity Committee. He was a director of the Federation of Genealogical Societies for eleven years, including four years as its vice president of administration. Jim was the National Conference Co-Chair for the memorable FGS Quad Cities Conference, held 12-15 September 2001 in Davenport, Iowa. He has received the David S. Vogels Award for career contributions to FGS and its six hundred member societies, and the Association of Professional Genealogists' Grahame T. Smallwood Jr. Award of Merit.