ROOTS & BRANCHES

There are many people more qualified than me to write about DNA and genealogy—so take everything you’re going to read here with a grain or two of salt. I was already in the larger genealogy community (that is, organizations and independent professionals doing more than just personal trees) when DNA started hitting the scene in …

I’ve written previously in “Roots & Branches” about how much I love maps and that this passion has culminated in my latest book. Well, that book is The Family Tree Historical Atlas of Germany and it is available for pre-ordering, with an expected shipping date in the second half of May (People who are attuned …

It’s not often that I’ve used the “Roots & Branches” pulpit to talk about something political. But the ongoing controversy over whether to put a citizenship question back in the U.S. Census questionnaire for the first time in more than half a century is worthy of comment, especially because it pulls me in some opposite …

When Patti Hobbs posted on Facebook a copy of a survey from an 1829 court file showing several property lines in what’s now Warriors Mark Township in Huntingdon County, she did it mainly because she thought it was a great map. And while that was certainly true – the survey was detailed enough to show …