Melanie Mayo

New Online Mayflower Collection Lets You Search to See if Your Ancestors are Descendants of the Original Pilgrims

The online research site American Ancestors, from the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), has just released the largest collection of authenticated Mayflower passenger genealogies ever online. This database is a digitized version of the Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880, a series of books created by the General Society of Mayflower Descendants and featuring more than a half a million names of individuals who are known to have descended from those who took part in the pivotal voyage.

This Curious 1880 Census Recorded the Insane, the Sick and the Poor

If you are one of the millions of people who have an ancestor that lived in the Unites States in 1880 and had a physical or mental impairment or illness – or who was homeless, an orphan, an alcoholic, a prisoner, who was living in an institution or poor house, or who received government assistance – you’ll want to know about these often overlooked census schedules.

DNA Testing is Not a Shortcut to Your Family’s History

Genetic testing has made family history a topic of interest to more people than ever before. But it has also provided an easy deception. While modern ancestry tests do share fascinating information about a person’s heritage, the results are only valuable, or accurate, within the context of family history research.

The Best DNA Kit Sales for Father’s Day 2018

Looking for sales on DNA test kits for Father’s Day? Or maybe you’re just looking to score the best deal for yourself? Either way, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve rounded up all of the 2018 offers to help you take advantage of the low prices and give Dad the gift of his genetic past.

The 20 Largest Genealogy Record Collections Online: Have You Searched Them?

There are literally billions and billions of genealogical records now available online. From the huge databases of paid subscription sites like Ancestry and MyHeritage, to the varied collections of FamilySearch and other free initiatives – details about our ancestors’ lives are more accessible than ever. And every single one of the these collections is vitally important and needs to be preserved – whether the database contains one record or a billion. But have you ever wondered what the largest collections on the web are, and who holds them? This article will show you.

The Top 4 DNA Ancestry Reports Shown Side by Side: See How Results from the Same Person Compare

If you’ve ever hoped that you could see the actual ancestry reports from these DNA companies before you purchased a kit or uploaded your raw data, you’re in luck. Today, in an effort to help you better understand how different results compare from test to test for one individual, we are going to show you actual screenshots of ethnicity reports from each of the top four kits side by side.

This Clever Google Search Tactic Will Help You Find Your Ancestors on Any Genealogy Website

Have you ever been on a genealogy website, trying to find a specific detail about your ancestor, when you discovered that the search functionality was too limited to turn up the information you need? What about those sites who only offer a separate search for each database? Or perhaps you have found websites that have no search function at all. How can you uncover what you’re looking for on these sites to avoid missed records? Here’s a simple solution you don’t want to miss.

MyHeritage Finally Releases a Pedigree View in Their Family Tree: Here’s How to Access It

For many years, users of MyHeritage have requested a pedigree view of their family tree. For a subset of family historians who use this type of horizontal view in their research (standard in many other programs) the vertical family view MyHeritage offered was somewhat unpleasant to work with. However, MyHeritage seems determined to improve their platform in nearly every way possible and they have finally decided that a pedigree view is important. If you already have a family tree on MyHeritage you can access this new view on just about any device immediately. We show you how.