ROOTS & BRANCHES

For someone who’s often too literal a thinker, a book that’s all about abstract thinking may not seem like a natural fit. And to be sure, it took me a little bit of re-reading of Darcie Hind Posz’s Ancestoring: Understanding Records, Family, and Ourselves (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2026; 179 pages) before I warmed …

It was just three years ago, while I was still interim executive director of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, that we put together the first statewide conference in the Keystone State that had been held in almost two decades. We called it PaGE—Pennsylvania’s Genealogy Event—and led by GSP’s Kathy Donahue, it received rave reviews from …

I’ll put my conflict of interest right out front here: I’m good friends with Stephen Nicholas “Nic” Stoltzfus, son of Elman Stoltzfus. This is going to matter because I’m reviewing in this “Roots & Branches” column the new book from Masthof Press by the elder Stoltzfus titled Amish Family Records, Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Fraktur & Needlework—1800 …

A little more than a quarter century ago, a substantial inheritance helped put the Blair County Genealogical Society on the map as the largest library strictly for family history in the wide swath of Pennsylvania between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. As many from the area already know, the society just enhanced its Roller-Hojeth Memorial Library’s footprint …