Nancy E. Perella, a retired secretary who studied history and genealogy, died March 16 at Gilchrist Hospice Care of complications suffered earlier from a fall. The Rodgers Forge resident was 86.

The daughter of James Milton Kidd, a mechanical engineer, and Martha Lynn Roush Kidd, a homemaker, the former Nancy Elizabeth Kidd was born in Baltimore and raised in Lauraville.

She graduated in 1947 from Eastern High School, then attended the Bard Avon School. After completing the Baltimore business and secretarial school, she went to work at the old Glenn L. Martin Co. as a secretary.

In 1949, she married John Lee Dockman, and the couple settled into the Northwood area and later on Dunkirk Road in Rogers Forge, where they raised their five children.

Ms. Perella took a job in 1969 as an administrator at Goucher College's Julia Rogers Library. She later worked in Baltimore County Public Schools' Office of Adult Education, retiring in 1997.

A resident of the Stevenson Lane Apartments in Rodgers Forge, Ms. Perella was interested in genealogy; she had traced her family back to the Civil War and the War of 1812, family members said.

She was also an avid student of local history and architecture.

She was in her late 50s when she began to seriously study the Battle of Gettysburg. She enjoyed taking trips to the historic battlefield with grandchildren and other family members.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Ms. Perella enjoyed vacationing in Ocean City and, after retiring, at Bethany Beach, Del.

A celebration of Ms. Perella's life will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday at Woodbrook Baptist Church, 25 Stevenson Lane, Rodgers Forge.

Ms. Perella is survived by three sons, William Cummings Dockman and Michael Francis Dockman, both of Lutherville, and John Richard Dockman of Shepherdstown, W.Va.; two daughters, Patricia Dockman Anderson of Rodgers Forge and Barbara Dockman Rinehimer of Monkton; 14 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. Her marriage to Mr. Dockman ended in divorce, as did a marriage to Raymond Perella.

— Frederick N. Rasmussen