About Us

Rooted in What We Know

Roots & Code is part of Quill & Code, a marketing, development and design firm established in 2005. Quill & Code provides marketing design and technology support for business-to-business clients, non-profits, and schools. Roots & Code specializes in web development for genealogical, historical, and family societies.

The Beginning

The seed of Roots & Code was planted when Amy Welch, our genealogy consultant, first became active with her local society in 2017 and showed Chris Whissen, her husband, its website. Chris took one look and said, “I could do better!” Fast-forward a few years, and the time seemed right to launch our first sites.

Management Team

Chris Whissen

Principal/Developer

Chris is a designer, developer, and all around curious person. He has more than 25 years in print and digital design experience and 20+ years in web development. He began as a newspaper designer before getting caught up in working on newspaper sites. After spending time in corporate marketing, he joined a small agency and began splitting his focus between developing for the Internet and designing. These days, he focuses on developing websites and online solutions for corporate and non-profit clients. He also serves on the board of his local historical society. 

Amy Welch

Genealogy Consultant

Amy is an archivist and genealogy librarian based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She has more than 10 years experience working with historical records, specializing in digitization projects, online content management, and records organization. She is on the board of her local historical and genealogical societies and will talk your ear off about the wonders of FamilySearch, given the chance.

Russell Mills

Relationship Manager/
Marketing

Russell specializes in building partnerships between clients and vendors that help his customers meet their long-term needs and goals. He is a marketing expert with more than 15 years’ experience working on a variety of video production projects: how-to, training, product demos, corporate videos, even setting up video studios on-site at trade show events creating video content for a wide variety of businesses.

Christine Oldenbrook

Marketing Consultant

Christine has been leading successful marketing strategies/campaigns for live/online events, data/content-based products, print/digital magazine/book publishers and other business/consumer brands for more than 35 years. She considers herself an evangelist of sorts, helping organizations change the way they develop audiences and acquire and retain customers.