ROOTS & BRANCHES

If there’s one genealogy conference that I consider to be a “can’t miss,” it’s the biennial event that was started by the International German Genealogy Partnership in 2017 and has survived and thrived through the COVID-19 pandemic and the changing world that has wrought.

This year’s edition is under the auspices of the IGGP Partner group Palatines to America (Pal Am, for short) and will be held from June 12–15 near Columbus, Ohio, a place with a long German heritage.

IGGP’s conference theme is “Celebrating Your German-Speaking Ancestors,” and will be held at the Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center, north of Columbus in Lewis Center, OH.

Since early bird pricing expires the end of this month, now’s the ideal time to lock in registration to the conference.

There will be total of 40 presentations during the conference, and among the first speakers to be announced were Timo Kracke from Germany, immigration and DNA expert Michael Lacopo, translator and script specialist Katherine Schober of “Germanology Unlocked,” and your “Roots & Branches” columnist.

As a matter of fact, I’ll be presenting two new lectures, “Matching Villages with Church Records: A Methodical Approach” and “The Peculiarity of Pennsylvania Germans,” and will debut the all-new second edition of my book Trace Your German Roots Online in the conference’s exhibit hall.

But perhaps my favorite part of the IGGP conferences are what’s called the “Connections” sessions, which are designed to allow people with interests in a particular German region, migration group, or any aspect of culture to gather informally at set times during the conference.

In 2021, when the conference went virtual during the pandemic, I was able to attend a Connections session on the tiny former countship of Wittgenstein—from which several of my lines including the Hiester family originated!—and had a chance to talk with the Germany-based experts on this area.

Registration is open at an early bird rate of $299 for the conference until Feb. 28, after which the price will rise to $349. The registration price includes a Thursday night welcome reception and lunch on Friday and Saturday—in addition to the presentations, Connections sessions, and exhibit hall,

 “Add-ons” for registrants include the anniversary celebrations (Friday night’s Pal-Am anniversary event is a banquet; IGGP’s on Saturday night will be casual food and activities) as well as a Thursday tour of the German Village neighborhood of Columbus, which thrived in the nineteenth century before declining in the face of World War I anti-German prejudice and urban renewal before being revitalized by a preservation group a few decades ago.

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The site for the IGGP event is the Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center and just minutes north of the city of Columbus.

For up-to-date information about the conference program and registration, please see https://iggp.org/2025-iggp-conference/