ROOTS & BRANCHES

Last week’s “Roots & Branches” went over the basics of the upcoming virtual RootsTech conference, but there’s so much to talk about that it cries out for another column. First off, the event’s theme is “Choose Connection,” and that seems to be appropriate as we begin a third year with the shadow of COVID-19 hanging …

For at least a little while longer, one of the RootsTech conference’s many distinctions will be as the last large in-person gathering of genealogists when it was held at the end of February 2020. But far overshadowing that distinction—which seems likely to fall with several in-person events scheduled for 2022—is that RootsTech sponsor FamilySearch.org, the …

Earlier this year I was waxing nostalgic about becoming a bit of a gray eminence in the genealogy world. And in addition to taking a step back from a few posts to allow some younger folks to fill some posts, I also pride myself at making introductions. Probably my favorite one was that of Diahan …

Ireland’s a relatively small island—it’s about three quarters of the size of Pennsylvania—but the substantial waves of migration to America beginning in colonial times have created a population of descendants that dwarfs the size of other ethnicities in the U.S. in relation to the mother countries’ populations. There are estimated to be 43 million German …