ROOTS & BRANCHES

Here’s a reminder that a lot of genealogy research is dependent on knowing the history of an area … and it helps when you overcome your sense of thinking that the history of different area will be the same as that to which you are accustomed. I had an email forwarded to me from Mike …

“My jaw is on the floor … gobsmacked!! Wow!” Even after all but 40 years of doing genealogy, your “Roots & Branches” columnist never tires of enthusiasm such as that expressed by Karla Kirchman-Gray about finding documentation about one of her German immigrant ancestors. Kirchman-Gray have a little bit of history that’s relevant. She and …

When I met Simon Davies earlier this year at the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, he was doing what’s quickly becoming a time-honored tradition of “making the rounds” in the Salt Palace expo hall to spread the word about a new product or service ready to hit the market in the genealogical community. Now …

Dale J.J. Leppard didn’t just fall off the turnip truck yesterday. But some managers of Find A Grave memorials treat him like he did. Find A Grave, owned by Ancestry.com, is a free online service that aims to document headstones worldwide and is uses volunteers who provide tombstone photos, biographies, and other information about burials. …