ROOTS & BRANCHES

Please forgive my horn-tooting but … when it comes to genealogy publications, it might be said that I know a thing or two.

My first involvement in the genealogy world beyond being a pure hobbyist dates back to the late 1980s. That’s when Laurel Miller was editor of the Journal of the Berks County Genealogical Society and told me she was leaving that volunteer post and—as I recall it—pretty much told me that I needed become her replacement as editor!

Miller and others on the board of that society provided me with most of the ideas and copy for the publication, which suited me just fine since I was almost a complete greenhorn at the time.

Over the years I had a run as editor of Der Kurier, the journal of the Mid-Atlantic Germanic Society, as well as writing four commercially published books and a column for German Life magazine.

But enough about me. Something that’s on my mind today are electronic newsletters published by family history groups today (Conflict of interest warning: I’m involved in all these groups one way or another, as I will point out further).

First there’s the fine Partner Zeitung, the bimonthly newsletter from the International German Genealogy Partnership, for which I was a board member.

A couple of things distinguish this e-publication. It’s put together in a “print format” that’s easy to print out for those of us who don’t read as well on the computer screen. And because of the international nature of IGGP, it runs side-by-side English and German versions of the text.

While it naturally gives preference to news of the Partnership and its partner societies, there are also articles of general interest. An archive of issues is available at: https://iggp.org/project/partner-zeitung-archive/

Part of my compensation for speaking in June at the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society’s 50^th anniversary conference was a year’s membership, which makes me the recipient of its Jots from Western Pennsylvania newsletter.

It, too, is available in an electronically published print format and combines news of the society with articles such as one giving an excellent summary of MeyersGaz.org in the September-October issue. Jots is available to WPGS members; to join go to the URL, https://wpgs.org/

Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (of which I’ve been executive director twice in the last 20 years!) delivers a free monthly e-newsletter to members and non-members alike.

This newsletter is in an e-mail format but is not difficult to print. In addition to previewing society programs and tours, it features articles such as “Locating Early Marriage and Death Records” in the August issue.  To get on the newsletter mailing list, click on “Subscribe to the GSP newsletter” button at this URL, https://genpa.org/public-collections/gsp-digital-newsletters/

Finally, Historical Society of Pennsylvania e-publishes its monthly “Genealogy Newsletter” in an e-mail format that includes a “From the Genealogist’s Desk” column by HSP’s genealogy director, Katy Bodenhorn Barnes (diligent readers of “Roots & Branches” will recognize her as my partner).

The HSP newsletter includes items such as a “Featured Document of the Month” and “A Genealogy Tip,” which in the July newsletter was to look carefully at the bibliographies of historical books for ideas on what collections to seek out in repositories! To subscribe, go to the bottom of the HSP website homepage and click on the “Subscribe to our newsletter” button, https://www.portal.hsp.org/