ROOTS & BRANCHES

When you’ve been around the larger genealogy community for a quarter century as your “Roots & Branches” columnist has—you get a little skeptical at any announcement that claims to be the biggest or greatest … when often it’s just the “newest.”

I used to say a lot about such announcements “well, that’s going to be more sizzle than steak.”

And it happened more than once that there was no steak at all!

This all tends to leave one a bit jaded about anything tagged as “latest and greatest.”

Well, then there was the recent announcement of the “German Genealogy Resource Map,” a joint project of two Partner representatives of organizations in the International German Genealogy Partnership, Nancy Myers of the Ahnenforscher Stammtisch Unna and Kent Robinson of Palatines to America.

This is the rare announcement that is more steak than sizzle, in part because Myers and Robinson aren’t folks who seek the limelight but rather are workers who lead by example.

“This interactive map enables you to visualize and easily locate valuable resources to help you with your family history journey,” according to the announcement when it went live.

Among the features of the color-coded map focusing on Germany and the United States are:

• Local genealogical societies and groups that specialize in researching German-speaking ancestors
• Archives, genealogical libraries, and historical societies
• Specific resources near your ancestor’s home village or immigration destination
• Unique icons and colors make it easy to identify different resource types
• Click on any icon to see detailed information, including name, location, and contact information

The map can be accessed by clicking either German Genealogy Map on the Palatines to America website (URL: https://palam.org/resource-map)  or Forschungshilfen on the Ahnenforscher Stammtisch Unna website (URL: https://www.ahnenforscher-stammtisch-unna.de/forschungshilfen/)

Myers and Robinson are well aware that the map is a work in progress and invite suggestions for additional resources to include as well as corrections via email to GenResMap@googlegroups.com.

The two who collaborated on this map have slightly different memories of how it originated—befitting the modest people that they are, it seems each wants to give credit to the other!—but it’s clear that they were “on the same page” from the start.

And that they had wished they had gone live sooner with the resource map, but that both had projects that got in the way (I personally can vouch for Myers, since she was my indefatigable co-chair for the all-virtual IGGP conference in 2021).

What they agreed upon from the start is the need for such a tool. “I indicated that I thought one of the problems that Americans have in doing research relates to the geography,” Robinson said. “They must be able to relate historical jurisdictions to modern day states.”

“We were using the information for our own research and thought that others would also find some value in being able to visualize resources in an area where their ancestors came from—or went to,” Myers said. “So we decided to just go ahead and put it online and call it a ‘work in progress.’”