ROOTS & BRANCHES

In the increasingly online world, digital, virtual world, idioms from the that pre-modern, pre-computer world sometimes lose their context. “Hanging up” a phone? Fewer and fewer people know where that literally comes from. And then there’s the phrase “where you stand depends on where you sit.” When so many times communication is virtual instead of …

I’ve been fortunate enough to benefit from loads of good relationships in the larger genealogy world during my years of participation in it. But it’s fair to say that among the very best of those ties is with the folks at F+W Media, who put out Family Tree Magazine as well as my three commercially …

Last week’s “Roots & Branches” column on DNA and genealogy struck a chord with Ebensburg reader Charlie Moyer, who went from skeptic to believer overnight after taking a test a couple of years ago. “The subject of DNA is very special to me,” Moyer wrote. He said that he’s an Ancestry.com subscriber but had been …

There are rarely many days in the week in which I don’t get someone asking me about DNA and genealogy. In many cases, it’s someone who has taken a DNA test. Other times, it’s someone thinking about taking a test who learns I’m a genealogist and wants to know my opinion about the state of …