ROOTS & BRANCHES

In a world that proves more and more quickly the truth of the cliché “the only constant is change,” it’s needed to check in again and again about the websites and methods recommend for genealogists to use. An outfit I had not checked in with for sometime is the USGenWeb project. This project, started as …

My four-great-grandfather Peter Beidler died in his 30s of consumption. I knew his widow Barbara (maiden name Spohn) had married a George Merkel after Peter’s death. But what about the rest of Barbara’s life? For that I had no clue – until now. That’s because genealogical information about our ancestors sometimes comes to us in …

It wasn’t too many years after I began doing genealogy that the State Library of Pennsylvania endured some budget cuts and no longer had paid staff assigned to proctor its huge Genealogy and Local History collection. That was in the late 1980s and a patron named Ray Schott, a native of Pittsburgh who was retired …

I’m going to put my conflict of interest right out from the get-go on this one. I’ve known Shamele Jordon for going on 20 years. She’s a good friend and a better genealogist who specializes in technology and African-American topics. So, when I heard her kicking around the idea of doing a television program – …

In my 30 years-plus of doing genealogy, I always felt that Friedrich Winter or Winder of Tulpehocken Township, Berks County, was one of my best documented ancestors. I had his will – in which he gives his oldest son a “birthright” bequest of “my good wagon,” the equivalent of the family car in 1786. His …