ROOTS & BRANCHES

 A couple of months ago “Roots & Branches” commented on the “easy come, easy go” aspect of genealogy conferences in the midst of a pandemic.

In addition to all the dislocation caused by the Coronavirus, it has been a silver lining to see genealogy groups, both big and small, rise to the occasion of bringing programming to family historians in a time when it’s not safe for the genealogists to go to the programming.

Just last week, the National Genealogical Society pulled off a full day called “NGS Live!” with several marquee speakers instead of the in-person conference scheduled for Salt Lake City.

Lectures that I was going to give in Salt Lake are now going to be part of NGS On-Demand that will be available beginning in July.

Other groups—such as the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society and MyHeritage/Legacy Family Tree—are doing an expanded lineup of free webinars.

In addition to programming, my occasional Blair County correspondent Niels Witkamp has reported in on other observations he’s made, genealogically speaking, during the pandemic.

“I do not know if this is just since the quarantine started or whether I’ve only just now heard about it, but there are some good resources available for people with a library card in this area,” Witkamp said. “Through my small local library, Tyrone-Snyder Public Library, I can access their Ancestry subscription from my home with my library card number through a link in their website.”

Witkamp said since Tyrone-Snyder is part of the Blair County library system, he can access the Altoona Area Public Library’s subscription to Newspaper Archive (though only for its Pennsylvania newspapers). “So right now there are paid sources available to use from home for people like me who are too frugal to spring for a personal subscription as long as you’ve got a library card,” he said.

He also noted that some subscription sites are making content and features that are normally behind a paywall accessible to all comers. “MyHeritage is allowing unlimited use of their MyHeritage In Color feature, which used to be limited to 10 pictures before the pandemic,” Witkamp said. “I’m sure there’s other resources out there I don’t know about that have expanded their free offerings for this time.”

Which all goes to show you that the old adage “necessity is the mother of invention” still applies in the 21^st century and is especially helping genealogists at this trying time.