Family history is a fascinating and personal way for everyone to better understand who they are and how our past has shaped us. Genealogy also helps to reveal and strengthen connections between individuals and communities. But how do you get started?
Join the NYG&B and guest speaker Rosie Grant for a look at the key essentials for beginning your genealogy journey; resources and tips specific to conducting culinary family history research; and how you can preserve your own New York family stories.
Rosie Grant, author of To Die for: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes, explores the surprising tradition of recipes etched on gravestones and what they reveal about memory, family, and the stories we leave behind. Drawing from her research and travels, she shares how food can serve as a powerful gateway to genealogy and local history. Attendees will discover how culinary traditions—sometimes literally carved in stone—can help preserve personal and community stories across generations. Hosted by the NYG&B, this program invites participants to see family history through a deliciously unexpected lens.
Participants can join us in person at the NYG&B New York City office or virtually. This is a free program, but registration is required.
This series is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. It is part of the NYG&B’s Preserving Your New York Story series, which offers free sessions for people to digitally preserve their own family history records as well as programming for tracing their family history and connecting with their past.
Speaker Bio
Rosie Grant is the author of the New York Times bestselling cookbook To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes and the creator of the popular social media project Ghostly Archive, where she researches and recreates recipes found on gravestones. An archivist and food writer, Grant explores the intersection of food, memory, and mourning by documenting dishes memorialized in cemeteries and sharing the stories behind them. Her work combines culinary history with storytelling, highlighting how families preserve the legacy of loved ones through recipes. To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes collects 40 such dishes from around the world alongside interviews, photographs, and reflections on the enduring connection between food, community, and remembrance.
Photo credit: Jill Petracek
This series is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
