Genealogy researcher delves deep into people's personal lives
Delving into the past has become a present-day obsession for many in Western Pennsylvania.
The Butler County Genealogy Society will bring in a professional to help its members refine their research techniques.
Elissa Scalise Powell, a Western Pennsylvania researcher for over 25 years, is co-director of the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP), and professional genealogy course coordinator at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research.
She will speak at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday at the Butler Public Library, 218 N. McKean St., on “How Researchers Find Hidden Treasures in Newspapers.”
According to Powell, newspapers contain more than death notices. They record many important events in our ancestors' lives and can even substitute for missing vital records.
Powell will show audience members how to access these records both online and offline.
“It's not just obituaries,” said Powell of Wexford. “You can get information from news stories, real estate transactions, birth announcements. People don't think to check marriage anniversaries. And news stories, there's all sorts of juicy items in them.”
“I'm the one that rounds up of the people for program,” said Butler Genealogical Society program chairwoman Natalie Price.
Price said this is Powell's third time presenting a program before the genealogical society members.
“I've been a professional genealogist for over 30 years,” said Powell. “I was a young mother at home with children who quit my job and was looking for intellectual stimulation.
“I started looking into my own family,” she said, and found the hunt fascinating.
“This was in the BC era — before computers,” Powell said.
Today, she said she is hired by people without the time or the expertise to look into their family histories.
“Lawyers hire me to settle property claims,” Powell said. “There was one case where there was a broken chain of title dating back to 1895. There was an owner that had 14 children and I had to track them down. It was a puzzle and I enjoy puzzles.”
The popularity of digging into a family tree's roots has led to the growth both of existing genealogical society's memberships and genealogical groups themselves.
“There's the Three Rivers Alliance for Genealogical Groups,” said Price. “That was spearheaded by the North Hills Genealogical Society, one of the biggest groups in the area.“The alliance stretches from southwestern Pennsylvania almost up to Erie,” said Price.The Butler County Genealogical Society has 35 to 50 members, said Price, who herself has been a member for eight years.“I was always kind of interested in that,” she said. “I don't remember what program drew me in. But I started going to meetings and meeting people with common interests.”Price said she's looking forward to Powell's discussion of using newspapers to overcome walls that crop up from time to time in genealogical research.She had hit a dead end in trying to discover the European village where her great-grandparents came from when the genealogical section of the library received a letter from a woman in Wisconsin seeking details on the Doerrs and the Rippers in this area.Contact with the Wisconsin woman helped Price get past her research impasse.Price credits two things with the renewed interest in family history and tracing family lineages.“I think the genetic testing has energized it. A genetic test can find out what they couldn't find out before,” she said.And all the television shows such as “Finding Your Roots” has popularized the nation of tracing family ancestors.Powell herself has appeared on the PBS-TV show “Ancestors 2” cemetery episode and on the Travel Channel's “Dead Files” in the 2015 “The Instigator” episode.Powell said she filmed another episode of “Dead Files” in April but she can't say very much until the episode airs in the fall.“They've got a haunted house situation and they bring in a psychic and a New York City detective. And they have to go to a genealogist, moi, to learn the history of the family,” she said.
WHO: Professional genealogist Elissa Scalise PowellWHAT: “How Researchers Find Hidden Treasures in Newspapers.”WHEN: 6:15 p.m. TuesdayWHERE: Butler Public Library, 218 N. McKean St.
