ROOTS & BRANCHES

Sometimes you try to kill a lot of birds with one stone. For one thing, with the busy holiday period coming up, when I found that five historic organizations in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, had banded together for a long weekend of “Pennsylvania German Christmas” events from Dec. 6–8, I was ecstatic that I might be …

I’ve known Glenn Riegel, who has been involved in photography in every angle from photo-journalism to teaching to commercial advertising, basically forever. His photos of birds—and just about everything else—have fascinated me for years and I’ve had growing admiration for all the awards he wins for those images. We grew up in the same church, …

The new book titled Storytelling for Genealogists: Turning Family Lineage into Family History covers an important topic that a fair number of genealogists could improve—making the jump from the sterility of names-and-dates-only compilations to the richness of interesting narrative. Doug Tattershall’s slim volume published by Genealogical Publishing Company touts the difference between genealogy and family …

Tara Sewell’s email came to me last month with several interrelated questions. First and foremost was the trouble she was having de-evolving her ancestor William Henry Sewell’s surname, which was defying her attempts to find more than a handful of records. I gave her some ideas on phonetic variants but it was when we talked …