It’s been said that "everybody has a past." Would you like to delve into yours? If so, we can help you find links to the unknowns in your life and the life of your family with our newest program "Who’s your granddaddy?"

"Who’s your granddaddy?" is a genealogy club for hobbyists, amateurs, and would-be genealogists. It’s the perfect opportunity to trace your roots, share your stories, grow your research skills, and learn from professional genealogists and other expert guests. Try it out and I’m sure you’ll find that the study of genealogy simultaneously gives you roots and wings.

Genealogy is at once whimsical and serious. It is the gathering of facts about your family’s past that links the long ago and far away to the here and now. while also linking the here and now to the yet to come. It allows you to reflect upon and draw strength from your ancestral experiences and gives you a hope for the future that can be documented for posterity.

Let’s say you’ve heard through the years that your great, great grandfather was a West Virginian farmer named Ricky Johnson. You just found a link to a West Virginian famer named Ricky Johnson and you are certain that he’s your Ricky Johnson... but is he? How do you find out? How do you distinguish between all the shades of information at your disposal? How do you know when a piece of information is totally invalid, especially when it appears to fit perfectly into the puzzle that is your family tree?  

Join us as we delve into the hidden treasures of religious and government archives. We’ll learn to objectively examine, compare and contrast birth, marital, burial, military, census, immigration, and slave records. We’ll learn how to conduct information interviews with the various people who hold bits and pieces of our stories and how to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information. We’ll learn to read timelines and to piece together neighborhood and kinship stories in ways that help us notice subtle differences in data.

The first meeting of "Who’s your granddaddy?" is Thursday, October 11 at 11:00 a.m. in the Senior Center of the Parkway Central Library. Our guests will be Carol M. Sheaffer and Nancy C. Nelson of the Genealogy Society of Pennsylvania.

Club participation is open to people of all ages and walks of life. For additional information, feel free to give us a call at 215-686-5331.