ROOTS & BRANCHES

I’d love to belong to every historical and genealogical group that exists. Unfortunately, I don’t have unlimited money for my own existence, which means I have to pick, choose and “sample” membership in some organizations. Of course, as someone who’s primarily a writer and editor, the publications put out by a group often tend to …

Someone’s probably come up with a snazzy term for the way I deal with technology: I’ll settle for “Not So Early Adopter.” That is, I’m not a luddite and don’t fear it, but I’m not first in line to try out the latest and greatest. Prime example: I rather religiously am always at least two …

Not every hunch that you play in genealogy pays off. In fact, to use another cliché: Over time, you encounter a lot more “dry holes” than “gushers” in researching family history … even with well-targeted searches, many of more of them will fail to return to the results for which you’re looking. But this is …

Whether you are personally religious or not, learning about ancestors’ membership in a church (or lack thereof) is often one of the most important facets of genealogical research. While it’s often impossible to know exactly how someone actually felt about their faith – unless he or she was one of the minority of people who …

I recall the late Tim Coyne, a gentleman who served on the board of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania while I was executive director there, opining that “it’s possible for historian not to be a genealogist, but it’s impossible for a genealogist not to be a historian.” What I think Coyne was getting at was …

Thomas R. Liszka, an Associate Professor Emeritus of English from Penn State Altoona, posed an interesting question to your “Roots & Branches” columnist. “I wonder if you have any suggestions on finding pictures of people,” he mused. “I have already been in touch with and collected photos from the older members of my wife’s and …