• Washington, September 1, 2020 •

Project manager Atiba Pertilla will be sharing German Heritage in Letters in “From Family Research to Digital History,” an online Zoom presentation sponsored by the German Society of Pennsylvania on Thursday, October 15, 2020, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The program will examine a broader shift in the historical profession from seeing private collectors as “sources” to “collaborators” in pursuing historical research, and focus on how the project works with members of the public who have contributed their letters to bring their stories to a broader audience. Often, family members have done a considerable amount of work with primary sources themselves, including transcribing and translating letters in their possession as well as extensive genealogical research, before reaching out to professional historians. New possibilities to expand on family research by taking advantage of the revolution in the availability of digital historical content to provide more context, as well as the project’s goals of embedding letters in current scholarly research about the events and eras they describe, will also be part of the presentation. Participants must sign up no later than 4 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13 in order to receive the web link to access the presentation. To learn more about the event and to sign up, please visit the event page on the German Society of Pennsylvania's website. 

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