Marsha Peterson-Maass

Offline Vital Records are Critical to Your Research, and Ordering Them is Easier Than You Think

If you’ve never taken the time to track down offline vital records about your ancestors you might be asking yourself two questions right now: “Vital Records? What are those?” and “Offline? Why would I need a quick guide to finding Vital Records offline when it’s so easy to surf for everything online?” But you’ll soon discover that adding these offline records to your research is an integral step in understanding your ancestors’ lives and building a quality family tree.

This Life-Changing Experience Led Me to Volunteer My Genealogy Skills – You Could Too

I’d like to share a miraculous family story with you that ultimately led me to a rewarding volunteer position where I use my genealogical skill set to help others. I’ll also give you some ideas for how you can help others with your genealogical skills, as well as point you to some helpful further reading in my textbook, Fundamentals of Genealogy®: The Most Helpful Tools You’ve Never Used.

The 2 Minute Cyndi’s List Experiment That Helped Me Find My Elusive Ancestor

What if you could transform Cyndi’s List into an even more valuable online research tool than it already is? I’ll share a quick experiment that helped me do just that.