Rare surnames can make the job of being a family history researcher easier. Here is a list of 100 of the rarest last names in the U.S. and help for finding out how unusual your family names actually are.
Here’s how to find hundreds, or even thousands, of new facts and stories about your ancestors with one simple tool.
Ever had an expert look at your tree? Professional genealogists often run family trees through a set of standard diagnostic tests and tweaks to improve them. We have created a list of the most important ones so you can apply them yourself. Use this list to examine your own genealogy research and see where you can make big improvements.
The Hints feature has long been a cornerstone of Ancestry’s website and subscription service. If you’ve used their family tree for any length of time you are probably quite familiar with them. But, as powerful as this feature can be, it can also mislead the unwary researcher – causing confusion, incorrect assumptions and inaccurate trees.
The increasing availability of places to store family trees has many benefits, but it has also created a major problem for researchers – access to attached records.
Fold3 is making millions of Civil War records available for free from April 1st – April 15th 2019. Here’s a look at what they’re offering and how to access these collections yourself.
The main Ancestry search page is the fastest way to look for your ancestors in Ancestry’s billions of searchable records. And, while its not always the best way to search, it can be a very effective tool when used correctly. Here’s how to make the most of it.
MyHeritage has announced a new genealogy tool that will allow its DNA users to more easily discover how they may be related to their genetic matches. This technology, called the Theory of Family Relativity™, uses family tree information and historical records from a variety of sources to attempt to find and display a common ancestor for matching individuals in the MyHeritage DNA database.
If you’re one of the millions of people who received a DNA test kit for the holidays this year, you’re probably pretty excited to send in your sample and receive your results. It’s pretty thrilling, after all, to finally discover how much Irish you really are, or if Grandma Jane was right when she said you had a distant Native American ancestor. But, if you’re not familiar with how these tests work you might also be feeling some confusion and trepidation.
Hoping to score the very best deal on a DNA test this holiday season? We’ve rounded up all of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts from the most trusted providers to make your job easier – including Ancestry, MyHeritage, 23andMe, FTDNA and Living DNA. Plus, we’ve included some help for choosing the best kit to gift.