ROOTS & BRANCHES

I’ve attended what’s now been branded the “GRIP Genealogy Institute” a couple of times in the past and found it to be a great “summer camp for genealogists.” It began as the Genealogy Research Institute of Pittsburgh more than a dozen years ago under the stewardship of Elissa Powell and Deborah Deal before being acquired …

People outside the world of genealogy often have no idea how specialized family history is.True story: A long, long time ago I had a first date with a woman who, when we talking about upcoming travel, said in response to the fact that I was going to a weeklong genealogy conference: “Wow, a week on …

There are times that I have “Roots & Branches” written weeks in advance—a couple of times I’ve put together a summerlong series around a particular topic—and then there are other times that I’m a little stumped about whether I still have something to say after more than a quarter century of writing this column. But …

The Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society celebrated its 50th anniversary last month with a two-day hybrid conference in Pittsburgh. Capping off the event was a celebratory dinner that included the announcement that the society has scanned and published online the Allegheny County death registers from 1893–1905 including over 28,500 names across more than a hundred municipalities.  …