ROOTS & BRANCHES

OK, let’s get the name thing out of the way. Trappe is a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, borough with an evocative name. It took that name from a tavern called “the Trap” that was operated by the town’s founder Jacob Schrack Sr., with the spelling altered over time as often happens. I have an affinity for …

The Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society was founded in 1974, which makes this year the organization’s golden anniversary. And what could be more appropriate for a 50th anniversary than a two-day hybrid conference, which will be held for in-person participants at the historic University Club in Pittsburgh. The conference carries the theme of “The Journey of …

Last week’s “Roots & Branches” took my readers to my home library’s bookshelf, particularly the books I keep on the “top shelf.” Apparently, it struck chord with some of those readers, who made comments about the column as well as talking about their own bookshelves. Trey Kennedy gave this list: “Elizabeth Shown Mills, Tom Jones, …

I had just hit upon this week’s “Roots & Branches” topic when Facebook showed me a shot of Germanology Unlocked’s Katherine Schober rightfully crowing about the fact that Brigham Young University uses her two books as texts in their paleography course. The irony of this is that those two books—Tips and Tricks of German Handwriting …

When I was first cutting my teeth in the genealogy world some four decades ago, there were some conferences with one-off lectures and just a few weeklong institutes for intensive study. Those latter opportunities have greatly expanded in the last decade or so, and one of them—the Genealogy Institute of Pittsburgh or GRIP—is now in …