Melanie Mayo

This May Be the Most Important Genealogy Research Trick You’ll Ever Learn

The first thing most family history researchers do when they encounter a genealogy website is to begin searching for their ancestors in the general (main) search form provided by the site – which is often located on the homepage or in another easily accessible area. All large genealogy research sites center around these main search forms which are designed, generally, to look for records in all searchable collections at one time.

General search forms that dig through millions, or even billions, of records are certainly handy. If you have never used a site before – or have not searched for a specific ancestor – these forms can be a great way to gather the low hanging family history fruit, so to speak. They provide a fast way to turn up easy-to-find records with little effort. But, despite this obvious convenience, they may often be stifling your efforts.

Were Your Ancestors Affected by Disaster? This Site Will Help You Uncover Their Stories

Family History is about more than just finding the names and important dates of those that came before us, it is a quest to discover the narratives of our ancestors lives. But finding that information can be difficult and sometimes requires creative solutions, such as reviewing old newspapers or examining historical events that affected large populations. That’s why a unique website like GenDisasters.com is such an invaluable free resource. 

These 2.5 Million Records May Be Genealogy’s Best Kept Secret

PERSI is an index of millions of articles, how-to guides, genealogies, local histories and more that have appeared in society publications from around the world. Both family history and history societies publish regular periodicals for their members and have done for generations. These publications cover the area or subject specific to that society, and go into incredible detail – some of which may well contain information about your family.

This “Genealogy” Site is Openly Sharing Your Personal Details Online: Here’s How to Remove Them

Here at Family History Daily we have spent a great deal of time researching free genealogy sites. While large paid websites, like Ancestry or MyHeritage, can offer a wealth of information to family history researchers, there is an growing selection of no-cost genealogy databases available online that provide just as much value. These sites, which are generally made available through the work of dedicated organizations, local governments, and volunteers provide a staggering amount of data that would be nearly impossible to access otherwise.

Generally, these sites provide information on those who have passed long ago, meaning that privacy is no longer an issue. But sometimes data about living people will be found. This is true on many sites – such as Ancestry – where you might just as easily find your own marriage record as that of your great great grandmother. But what happens when a site crosses the line? When they provide too much personal information about a living person and make it too easy to access?

Need Help Deciphering Old Genealogy Documents? Explore These Free Handwriting Resources

From online databases to image archives, researching our family history has never been easier. However, there is one problem that digitization and online databases cannot fix: historical handwriting. From words no longer used to character formation, cursive style and even sentence structure, it can be very frustrating to the genealogist when deciphering old family documents or official papers. To assist you in this process, let me share some tips and tricks that I have learned in my own research.

While the official study of historical handwriting is known as Paleography, there is a lot more to it than you might think. Some basic themes and issues that you might encounter first are abbreviations and styles.

More Than 100,000 Free Genealogy Records Can Now Be Found on Internet Archive

No matter how experienced of a genealogist you are you’ve no doubt discovered that one of the most valuable resources available to you are digital libraries. Not so long ago, in order to access these family history records, one had to travel to the specific places where those documents were stored. Now, with digital libraries, there is a treasure trove of resources available from wherever you are.

Of course what is available through digital libraries is limited by how fast those historical documents are being digitized and uploaded. And one of the leaders in digitizing the world’s archives and providing free access to the resulting library is Internet Archive.

Internet Archive has made finding family history records simple by providing a specific portal dedicated to genealogy. At the time of writing, this free resource contained 129,580 items of valuable genealogical information, and it is continually growing. Better yet, the available documents are taken from a wide array of sources, including texts uploaded from places such as Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, the Boston Public Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Leo Baeck Institute Archives of German-speaking Jewry and many more.