ROOTS & BRANCHES

If you’ve been reading “Roots & Branches” for any length of time or know me personally, you understand that I’ve been “on both sides of the desk” when it comes to genealogy conferences. I went as an attendee to my first conference closing in on 40 years ago. I’ve been a national speaker frequently for …

In a “Roots & Branches” column about a month ago, I had gone to the readership for their own ideas on “What’s your No. 1 interest when you research?” I had listed a bunch of my ideas—everything from ages and causes of death to occupations and motivations—and then turned it over to all of you …

Nearly every organization in the United States of America is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but few are doing it with the style and flair of Historic Trappe, group that interprets four 18th century buildings in that Montgomery County borough. As I like to do when I have a conflict of …

The recent conference of the National Genealogical Society, held in Fort Wayne, Indiana, just a block away from the Allen County Public Library’s Genealogy Center, the world’s second-largest genealogy library. In the changed post-pandemic world of genealogy events, this NGS is what counts for a large gathering of more than a thousand people (There’s still …

You might say that Revolutionary War soldiers are a dime a dozen in my ancestry. With all the justifiable flutter over the America 250 celebration I thought I might take a count and without getting too deep into the weeds of documentation I came up with more than two dozen. As far as I know, …