About Napa Valley Roots – Diane Dillon & Shannon Murray Kuleto
Napa Valley Roots is led by lifelong history researchers, Diane Dillon and Shannon Murray Kuleto. We offer custom heritage research reports, genealogical narratives, organizational/archival support, and more for families, businesses, and community organizations.
Curious about what we can uncover together? We have a few ideas on our “Services” page! We welcome inquiries from families, nonprofits, businesses, and organizations of all kinds. Drop us a line—we’d love to hear from you.
Meet the founders of Napa Valley Roots
Shannon Murray Kuleto
Writer, Researcher, Editor
“What amazing stories we have here, and looking through the lens of history,
we begin to glimpse how even the most ordinary lives and choices can reveal extraordinary depth
—and remind us that what we do each day is shaping a spirited future.””
Shannon Murray Kuleto’s pursuits are varied—writer, researcher, nonprofit advocate, former vintner, and longtime member of the St. Helena Star editorial board. She also sings with and helps lead the St. Helena Choral Society. But she’s perhaps best known as a champion of local history—encouraging the people of all ages to connect with our shared heritage.
Shannon co-founded, with former Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon, a small historical research firm — Napa Valley Roots. Through this venture, they explore both familiar and forgotten stories from the past, and offer custom history research for families, businesses, and community organizations. Shannon also helps lead valley-wide efforts to establish a Napa Valley Heritage Network—a collaborative initiative to celebrate the region’s rich cultural legacy and promote heritage tourism.
From Appalachians to Appellations …
Now happily rooted in California, Shannon traces her own ancestry back nearly three centuries in the Blue Ridge Mountains—where her love of the past first took root in Appalachian folk traditions passed down by her grandmother. After earning a B.S. from Georgia Tech, Shannon worked in tech and lived abroad before returning to Atlanta to study. She pursued graduate work in Early Modern World Civilizations at Georgia State University and taught history there for several years before moving west to Napa Valley.
Alongside her nonprofit and heritage work, Shannon is crafting a novel set in St. Helena, and a creative-nonfiction series, rooted in genealogical research, that reimagines her ancestors’ lives through first-person storytelling.
Diane Dillon
Writer, Researcher, Genealogist
In January 2023, Diane Dillon stepped down from her fifth and final term as Napa County Supervisor (District 3) and turned her focus to collaborating with co-founder Shannon Murray Kuleto in an historical research venture —Napa Valley Roots. Together, they offer custom history and genealogy research reports and narratives for families, businesses, and community organizations.
Diane is a fifth-generation Napa, and grew up surrounded by stories of her great-grandparents’ pioneer days—tales of horse-and-buggy trips from Conn Valley over the Pope Street bridge in St. Helena, or winding journeys up Mt. St. Helena to visit relatives in Lake County and at the quicksilver mines. Diane’s education is as quintessentially Californian as her family history: she earned a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara, an M.A. in Library Science from UCLA, and a J.D. from UC Davis, which led to two decades in private law practice in Napa Valley.
Deep Roots in Napa
With such deep roots, it’s no surprise that Diane has long supported local history and preservation organizations, as well as Napa’s genealogy society. Her post-supervisorial life continues that commitment, centering on research and writing focused on Napa Valley history. She also is a leader in the creation of the Napa Valley Heritage Network — a collaborative initiative to celebrate the region’s rich cultural legacy and promote heritage tourism.
A devoted family historian for decades, Diane has spent countless hours exploring archives, museums, and cemeteries—painstakingly cataloguing her findings, now both offline and online. Her genealogical expertise culminated in an ambitious project: tracking the family trees of every person elected to the Napa County Board of Supervisors since 1850. That tree now includes nearly 8,000 profiles supported by over 23,000 records, forming the foundation for the County’s photo/bio displays of past Supervisors—and for Diane’s in-progress book on the history of Napa County governance.
Napa County Supervisors Since 1850
You can look at the wonderful result of Diane’s special project in person in the Supervisor’s Meeting Room in Napa, or check it out virtually! The County’s photo/bio displays of past supervisors are here.
CONTACT US!
Curious about working together? Get in touch—we’d love to hear from you.
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