ROOTS & BRANCHES

A little more than a week ago, I had my first opportunity to step beyond the virtual genealogy world since the Pandemic came crashing down more than two years ago.

The Ohio Genealogical Society’s conference returned as an in-person event for the first time since 2019. I had the opportunity to speak at Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, Ohio, as well as help represent the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania in the conference’s exhibit hall.

I’ve presented at this conference for a dozen years and it was a comforting situation to which to return. Ohio has a welcoming reputation and the many folks who also have Pennsylvania and German roots make for a receptive audience.

But as great as the Ohio conference was, the event I’m really looking forward to this year is Midwestern Roots, sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society, which will be held over three days (July 14–16) in Indianapolis.

Of course, I need to give my customary “conflict of interest” statement up front: I answered the Midwestern Roots’ first open call for papers and had several presentations accepted.

But my enthusiasm goes several notches beyond just being a speaker … or even beyond the fact that my girlfriend Terri Bridgwater will get to hear a lecture from Emily Schroeder of the Cuyahoga Public Library System titled “Croatian Immigrants of the Great Lakes: A Case Study.” Not often does she get the opportunity to hear about the ethnics who make up her paternal ancestry.

No, completely personal reasons aside: This is not your father’s genealogy conference. First of all, it emphasizes storytelling, and has engaged as its featured storytellers Katrina Mitten, a citizen of a Native American tribe; Timothy N. Pinnick, a leading African

American emancipation researcher; and the venerable Curt B. Witcher, director of special collections for the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Secondly, it was willing to challenge the paradigm of virtually all presentations running a standard talk-for-45-minutes-and-take-15-minutes-of-questions.

There are some “quick hit,” half hour talks, including some that are free form question-and-answer sessions.

And the topics and speakers were carefully crafted to include more than the “usual suspects” and their usual topics. Talks such as “Telling Stories in Beads” and “Mentioning Unmentionables: A Conversation about Historic Undergarments.” And “Shifting Migration Patterns: The Midwestern Mexican Diaspora of the Early 20^th Century.”

A couple of new lectures I’ll debut are: “Lost Generations of the 17^th Century: Prelude to Colonial Immigration” and “Isms and Schisms: The German Religious Peopling of the Midwest.”

Even the food selections for meals being offered as part of the conference reflect diversity, with the Friday evening reception’s food themed as “Everybody Came from Somewhere: The Mixing Bowl of What We Eat.”

Registration for Midwestern Roots is open at the URL, https://indianahistory.org/research/family-history/midwestern-roots/