Glen Holstein holds a PhD from U.C. Davis and is retired from a career as a consulting landscape ecologist. While his professional career primarily concerned the geography of plants and animals, Glen also has a strong interest in patterns of human movements across landscapes, which is the geography of genealogy.

 

Many of our ancestors were part of groups that left homelands at particular times and moved together to specific regions in America. For example, many people left Ireland during a blight that destroyed their potato crop and then moved to American places where they could make a living without growing potatoes. About the same time political upheavals caused many Germans to settle in quite different American regions. Such migrations are just two of many that will be discussed.

Together, they are the geography of genealogy. Your ancestors are part of this geography. (Please note, there are no handouts for this presentation. The talk includes many map slides. A bibliography of the books from which the maps and  content of the presentation were procured will be provided)