Although this information may seem simple, it is not always obvious to beginners how this process works. Kimberly Tucker has taken the time to go over how to download your tree from the big three subscription sites - Ancestry, MyHeritage and FindMyPast - and has also provided links to some additional instructions for other programs.
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If you’re one of the 175 million people around the world who use Pinterest every month, you probably already know that there’s a lot to love. Maybe you think of Pinterest as a great place to collect clever home decor ideas or as the best spot to peruse beautiful images of tasty food (who doesn’t?) - but did you know that Pinterest is so much more than that? It may be the free genealogy tool you've been missing.
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While there are plenty of other good options that could be added to this list, I consider the following selection of books must-reads for any serious researcher, professional genealogist, or anyone who wants to become a professional genealogist (with one exception because all learning must be fun). In fact, they are a must for anyone who wants to improve their research. These books will certainly take you more than a year to work through, but the effort will ...
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Millions of people received DNA tests over the holiday season and, as results start to finally roll in, many of you will be looking at ethnicity reports for the first time - 39% of this, 22% of that, 2% of something totally surprising…it can all be very exciting. But what does it all mean? Can you really take these percentages at face value? The answer is a resounding no. While your results certainly contain truths, accepting your ancestry ...
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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 ...
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Searching for and locating records about our ancestors is seldom a simple process. Of course, we all have those easy to find individuals that seem to appear in every single record at just the right time -- but many of us spend most of our time searching for those elusive members of our tree that appear to have avoided being recorded on purpose. If you've hit a brick wall in your research, check our list of 13 common reasons why ...
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Many people are unaware of the fact that not all of Ancestry's records show up in search. A surprising number of collections have not been indexed and are therefore virtually invisible to the everyday user of the site. These browse-only collections, as they are known, need to be purposely sought out if you want to take advantage of the records they contain. Some collections have been on Ancestry's site for years and are still not searchable, while ...
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One of the most exciting things about doing family history research is moving beyond names and dates to begin exploring the stories of our ancestors' lives. There are many ways to do this. Records like pension applications, wills and obituaries can provide details that allow us a special glimpse into the important events and personal relationships of our forebearers. But there is one type of genealogy resource that often stands above the rest when it comes to providing unique insights. And this ...
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With billions of records now online, many of them free and open to all, is there really still an absolute need for offline research? For our genealogical research to be considered thorough, does it have to be conducted offline, in an archive, courthouse, or library? The short answer of course is "no" - depending on what we want to know. But here's the catch: we don’t know what we don’t know. In other words, if we haven’t ...
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If you're taking the time to gather with family over the holidays, you'll no doubt be hoping for the opportunity to collect some family history information at the same time. But while we all know how important it is to talk with relatives about our family's past, may of us feel hesitant to ask others to break out the memories, photos and records when the time comes. How can we broach the topic of sharing family history gently, and ...
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