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Detailing family history can be difficult, but worthwhile

22.05.12

Marlene Bransom thought it was going to be easy. Just visit the local historical center in Waynesburg, go through some books, and presto, she'd make her impending family reunion that much more memorable with a family tree.

"No such luck," Bransom says with a smile 28 years later, noting the information she found at the Cornerstone Genealogical Society was limited to one slim folder.

"I decided this can't happen," Bransom says. "There has to be information here on African Americans in Greene County. I kind of put my family history aside for a moment and I decided to copy (the names of) all the African Americans who were in the census from 1790 to 1920, typed it up and started gathering as much information as I could."

Bransom, the author of two books that trace African-American genealogy in Western Pennsylvania, will participate in Genealogy Weekend at the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District on Saturday and Sunday.

"Many Western Pennsylvanians have deep roots in the local community that go back a number of generations," says Andy Masich, president and CEO of the History Center. "Performing genealogical research helps visitors connect with their family roots so they can better understand their ancestors and hopefully guide their own lives in the future. Here at the History Center, that's our mission -- to preserve the past, so we can make good decisions in the present, and plans for the future."

Source: Tribune Review