Welcome to Shake the Tree - Discover Your Roots

My name is Rebecca Kichta Miller and I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, mostly on the South Side. The eldest of seven children, three boys, and four girls, I  have been "researching genealogy" since 1971 when my mother gave me copies of two family trees: one from a brother of hers who created it after a trip to Ireland and the other done by a distant cousin of my father who was trying to document her paternal great grandmother’s family for a DAR application, both of which proved to be totally wrong after 20 years of research. 

In 1975, I moved away from Pittsburgh. In the days before the Internet, I spent many days scouring libraries and repositories for information to fill in the gaps in my family trees and many a vacation back in Pittsburgh collecting photos, stories, and memorabilia. Once living in Northern Virginia and working in Washington, D.C., I then discovered the wonders of the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the DAR Headquarters, which were only blocks away from my office at the time. With the advent of the Internet, a trip to Ireland, many, many interviews with close family members, numerous educational seminars, webinars, and conferences, and seveal DNA tests under my belt, I now consider myself a “Not-Certified Genealogist."

Upon moving back to Pittsburgh in 2006, I was then able to do hands-on research at local genealogical repositories. Having served as the President of the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society five times in the past 14 years, I’ve also served as the Editor of the Society’s award-winning newsletter, Jots from Western Pennsylvania, since 2012 and manage the WPGS online bookstore. Each September, I organize the genealogy pavilion at both the Pittsburgh Irish Festival and the Ligonier Highland Games. With a group of dedicated volunteers, we provide outreach and resources to anyone who has an interest in family history, whether they have Irish or Scottish ancestors or not. As an active member of numerous local, state, national, and international genealogical societies, I work hard to keep my skills up-to-date in order to share family history research methods. 

With three sons, three daughters-in-law, four granddaughters, two grandsons, one grandsone-in-law, one granddaughter-in-law and one great-grandson, I try to make sure that they are all very aware of their diverse heritage and who their ancestors were.