Ina Fern Fields Wayland was born February 28, 1889 in West Liberty, Kentucky, to Charles and Anna Harrison Fields. She married Charles Franklin Wayland in 1908, and the couple settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they had six sons and one daughter. Ina took up the hobby of genealogy in order to trace her family history for her children, and friends soon began to ask her to help with their own family trees. She later began to transcribe cemetery inscriptions, took up broader historical research, and started collecting antiques. Wayland also became known for her knack of rediscovering original historical documents from across East Tennessee. Collections of her historical and genealogical research materials can also be found at the Calvin McClung Historical Collection at Knox County Public Library and the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

During her lifetime, Ina Wayland was a member of the East Tennessee Historical Society, the American Order of Pioneers, the Institute of American Genealogy, Colonial Dames of the Seventeenth Century, the Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Huguenot Society, the Association for Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities, the Civil War Centennial Commission, and Ossoli Circle.

Ina Wayland died August 2, 1965, two days after suffering a fall at the John Sevier Memorial Association’s annual picnic. She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Knoxville.