ROOTS & BRANCHES

The first time I ever read a trilogy—OK, truth be known, it was also the first time I had encountered the word!—was three comic book stories on witches. Since then I’ve read trilogies of books, seen movies and watched television. But the most massive trilogy I’ve ever come in contact is the one compiled by …

For the first time in 42 years, a history of the German-speaking Staudt-Stoudt-Stout families in eastern Pennsylvania is being published. This is a common name—your “Roots & Branches” columnist counts himself among the thousands of descendants of multiple immigrants of the surname in the 1700s. Led by Ellen Kramer, the national family historian of the …

With the possible exception of my own commercially published books, I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited to receive a copy of a new book as the one that showed up in my mailbox last week. That’s because co-author Sunny Jane Morton had given me a heads up that she was working on How …

Genealogy hobbyists often start their searches today with merely a name. And many databases and family history websites today have advanced to the point of serving up potential records that match those names. Even more specific questions—such as “Where do I find my great-grandfather’s birthplace?” or “Which port did my great-great-grandmother use to enter the …