ROOTS & BRANCHES

As you read this, I’m expecting to be either in my final preparations for or actually on my way to Germany for a sixth time—my first visit in a dozen years.

After arriving in Frankfurt, I’m planning to see Rudi and Helga Daub, my longest lasting German friends, who I met when I was historian of the Daub Family Reunion in Lebanon County.

That goes back some 30 years and I remember as if yesterday the electricity when Rudi and I stood before the family reunion, the two people with the most genealogy knowledge about this family in the world!

Then, if my schedule goes as planned, I will prowl around various towns in the Pfalz (the German word for what’s called the Palatinate in English), including some I’ve visited before from which multiple of my many immigrant families hailed (Sprendlingen and Schriesheim).

I also hope to visit Hochstadt, where other of my families resided before founding a church they called “Host,” for the dialectical version of the town name in Germany. Also on the itinerary is Ungstein, a tiny village from which my Bickel family came.

If I have time, I’ll also swing by Albersweiler, where my Winter family resided and get a feel for that town.

I’m hoping to spend a day in the Württemberg towns of Mőtzingen and Jettingen, the hometowns of my only 19^th century immigrants, the Hillers.

And then I’ll finish the trip with three days in Bavaria at the genealogy conference at which I’ll look to see some old friends and make new acquaintances.

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“Roots & Branches” readers might recall my enthusiasm about a new Chrome browser extension called Goldie May that automates creating a research log—saving the Internet browser tabs for those of us who work up a storm with loads of tabs open and then lament when they get lost after a computer freeze or crash.

The extension’s developer is Richard K. Miller of Provo, Utah, and he will be presenting a webinar titled “The Why and How of Keeping a Research Log” as a Special Event for the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania at 7 p.m. Sept. 7.

Miller will also introduce a discount on the Goldie May extension for the society’s members.

Goldie May has the capability to help automate the citations process as well as compiling bibliographies. Some of the features (project management and the research log) are available for free; the most sophisticated ones such as “Subway” and “Workspace” require a subscription, the price of which is as low as $12 a month or $120 a year.

Miller named the product after one of his great-grandmothers. You can find more information at www.goldiemay.com.

To register for the free Special Event, go to the URL: https://genpa.org/programs-and-events/

Beidler is a freelance writer and lecturer on genealogy. Contact him by e-mail to jamesmbeidler@gmail.com. Like him on Facebook (James M. Beidler).