ROOTS & BRANCHES

Even before I was interested in genealogy, I was captivated by maps. Political maps with country and state borders, physical maps with the greens for plains and reds for mountains, road maps with all their symbols – it didn’t matter, I would examine them, trace them, even freehand them. What got me thinking again about …

Back in the days when printed things were the primary source of information for people, there was an outfit named Halbert’s that “specialized” (in strange twist of that word) in the most generic family histories possible. These volumes would feature a coat of arms or crest on the cover (which indeed would be related to …

I first encountered the encyclopedia of German genealogy knowledge that is Baerbel Johnson at the Family History Library in Utah when steered she me, as she has many times since then, to just the right resource to solve my problem. To meet up with independent researcher and Anabaptist expert Michael Lacopo, it was listening to …

I’ll admit to being a big fan of datestones on buildings. And I’ll admit further that I’ve found that they must be examined critically just like any other piece of historical evidence – sometimes in ways that I never would have anticipated. The “default version,” so to say, is that you’ll find a datestone either …