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The Pennsylvania Chapter’s Fall Webinar and Annual Membership Meeting is happening on Saturday, September 13, 2025, beginning at 1:00 pm EDT. Join us via Zoom for two interesting presentations, then stay connected for our Annual Membership Meeting.
Migration Patterns of Germans Within America and Hitting Pay Dirt: Tunneling into Pennsylvania’s Land Records
Our first session on Migration Patterns explores how topography and history channeled Germans into certain areas, how chain migration drew allied families together, and what tools you can use to follow their footsteps. In our second session on Pennsylvania’s Land Records, we will learn how people bought, traded, and earned land in Pennsylvania through several means, leaving a plethora of land records.
Sharon Cook MacInnes is a professional genealogist, lecturer, teacher, and writer. As a recently past member of the Board of Directors of the National Genealogical Society, she co-authored the NGS course “Advanced Skills in Genealogy.” She is the author of several books, and posts many free PA resources on her website, https://ancestortracks.com/.
Our Annual Membership Meeting will convene at approximately 3:15 pm, following a brief break at the conclusion of the presentations. Please join us for this important look back at the past year and overview of upcoming activities, as well as the election of officers for the next year. Agenda and background material will come out closer to the meeting date.
Register Here to join us for this event. If you have questions about the presentations or the annual meeting, please email us at info@pennpalam.org.
Cemetery Markings and Their Meanings Language of the Cemetery
Presenting NANCY OTTMAN, a retired Director of Human Resources and Loss Prevention for the JC Penney Co. She has been involved with genealogy research and cemetery studies for 30 plus years. She joined Palatines to America in 2006, and is a former treasurer for PalAm and was instrumental in the moving of the collection to the Columbus Metropolitan Library. She is a member of the Association of Gravestone Studies and Ohio Genealogical Society. She has spoken on beginning Genealogy, Immigration of Germans to America, migration of Germans throughout the United States, and has given numerous lectures on cemetery tombstones and their meanings, as well as several educational presentations for the Columbus Metropolitan Library, school districts and fraternal organizations.
The Language of the Cemetery will introduce the sights of the cemetery. We will start the visit with a quick review of tombstone types. Then we will look closer at the stones for the 17th, 18th and 19th century markings. We will see stones and markings from around the United States, Europe and South America. We will finish with military markers and a few interesting miscellaneous stones and markers.
The cost is FREE for PalAm members and $5 for non-members or registrations after September 20th. Registration is required to get the Zoom link.
Members: Email Bonnie Everhart (bonnieeverhart@gmail.com) or Becky Thornton (rthornton07@gmail.com) with your membership number to get the Zoom link. Non-Members: Send via PayPal at @NCPALAM, or mail a check payable to: NC Chapter PalAm Bonnie Everhart 7791 Young Rd Hickory, NC 28602 Email address is required to get the Zoom link.
Come join us on the 2025 PalAm FamilySearch Library Research Trip!
A deposit of $100 is required with registration. Balance is due July 31, 2025. Fees do not include parking at the hotel, meals, or transportation costs.
Register online here or Download the flyer with more details and offline registration form.
Questions? Contact Lloyd Shenberger, group leader, at LWShenberger@gmail.com
• Hotel accommodations at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel—a 2-minute walk to the Library • 7-nights [Sunday, September 28 thru Saturday, October 4 (depart Oct 5) • Special hotel rate for our genealogy group • 4 floors of extensive research resources―microfilm, books, periodicals, maps, etc. • Research specialists to provide assistance and translations • View microfilm onsite that otherwise requires vising a FamilySearch Center or Affiliated Library or may be restricted outside of FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake • Transfer a wide variety of media to digital format at no cost―includes photos, VCR, cassette tapes, movies, etc. • Going as part of a group that can be supportive is especially good for first time visitors to the FamilySearch Library • Social time with fellow researchers • FamilySearch Library classes scheduled for group • The remainder of the time is yours to use for research as you desire. • Travel arrangements and additional expenses provided by each attendee
The Colorado Chapter of Palatines to America is pleased to announce that Alex Tolksdorf has accepted our invitation to be the speaker at our Fall Seminar on 15th November 2025. Visit www.copalam.us for more details.
Alex’s Topics: 1. Maximizing Research Success in the Aroslen Archives 2. Eastern European Genealogy for Beginners 3. Tracing your Dutch Roots 4. How to Get your Family Engaged in your Research
The seminar will be a hybrid event. A recording will be made available for 30 days to those who register. In-person attendees who register by 27th October 2025 will be eligible for lunch with Alex, There will be lots of door prizes for both in-person and virtual attendees.
About Alex: Alexander Tolksdorf is a genealogist and speaker, specializing in German, Dutch, and Eastern European research. He began his personal journey in high school, inspired by a trip to Ellis Island and through a correspondence with his great uncle in Germany, who also was an active family historian. All four of his grandparents immigrated to the United States in the 1950s following the Second World War; as such, the majority of his research experience and focus is in European sources. Paternally, his family is German, primarily from the Prussian provinces of Westphalia, Posen, and East Prussia. Maternally, his family roots are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian. Thus far, Alex has uncovered and actively researches family lines in Ukraine, Germany, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, and Russia. Through this work, he has become very comfortable with research in these counties; including overcoming the language barriers, lack of online record access, and lost or missing records. He relies on civil, church, and a plethora of other records for his research, and finds that all provide illumination and the tools to break down brick walls. Alex believes that standard records only tell part of the story, with the many additional forms of documentation providing color and texture to a family history. Alex enjoys his work as a financial analyst at the Ford Motor Company, and is a former President of the Ford Genealogy Club. He is also active in the Ukrainian-American community of Metro Detroit, serving as a former treasurer of the Ukrainian Graduates of Detroit and Windsor, the treasurer and circulation manager of the Detroitski Novyny, the local community newspaper, the chairperson of the Supervisory Committee of the Ukrainian Self-reliance Michigan Federal Credit Union, and a board member of the Ukrainian American Archives and Museum. During his spare time when he is not researching, Alex enjoys walking and exercising with his wife, Katelyn, and their dog, as well as working on his car, a 2014 Ford Mustang GT. Alex is an Accredited Genealogist (AG®), credentialed by the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen℠) for the Germany – East region.
Register electronically using PayPal at https://www.copalam.us/ on the seminar registration link. Register by mail by completing the form available at https://www.copalam.us and mail it with your check payable to COPalAm Colorado Palatines P.O. Box 51186 Colorado Springs, CO 80949
The Pennsylvania Chapter’s series of Third Tuesday Zoom programs continues. Presented at 7:00 PM ET, they are free and open to all. Join us for our November program:
Lost in Pennsylvania - Try the Published Pennsylvania Archives Tuesday, November 18, 2025
The Pennsylvania Archives is a set of 138 published volumes in ten series that can be overwhelming to the genealogist who first sees them. However, searching in these volumes can help you locate information about what an ancestor was doing at a given time, and where s/he was doing it. If an ancestor surfaces in Western Pennsylvania or Ohio, information in these volumes may help you to learn where s/he was before that time. Most information in the published Pennsylvania Archives covers from the colonial period through about 1850. Along with state documents, reports and papers, this series included things like land records, church records, and military records. This talk will discuss how to access the Pennsylvania Archives and give you a plan of attack to work through them to get the most information soonest, illustrated with examples of the kind of information you might find.
Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer, MLS, has a Master’s Degree in library science and a graduate certificate in archives. She started doing genealogical research in 1979, specializing in Pennsylvania research. She belongs to several genealogical societies. Her training as a librarian helps in developing talks about research for genealogists, and articles she has written have appeared in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, and the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, among others.
Register here to join us for this program. If you have a question that you want to ask, feel free to email us in advance at info@pennpalam.org or pennsylvaniapalatines@gmail.com.
Indiana Chapter Collaborative Learning SessionSaturday, February 7 2026 ― 10:00 AM – 12:00 PMZoom Virtual OnlyFree to ALL
Curious about AI in genealogy? No experience necessary, let's all learn together!
10 am - 11 am General introduction to AI and Genealogical Uses by Patty Wisemen with time for sharing 11 am - 12 pm Putting it All Together: Research Planning and Projects Using AI by Andrea Ackermann with time for sharing
To register to attend, send an e-mail to indianapalam@gmail.com with CLS in the subject line. Please include any useful AI resources in your email to be shared. Download flyer for more details.
Palatines to America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. PO Box 141260, Columbus OH 43214 © 2023
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