Monthly Archive: March, 2019

My RootsTech Experience, by James Tanner

My RootsTech 2019 Experience Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is reprinted here with the author’s permission. https://www.rootstech.org/ I am fairly certain that my RootsTech 2019 experience was far different than nearly everyone else attending the Conference. I have been attending the RootsTech Conferences since the very first one in 2011 except...

Two New Show-Me Videos for The Family History Guide

If you are a visual learner, chances are good that you have seen some of the videos produced by The Family History Guide Association, or least some of the videos that we link to, from our website. Currently we link to over 850 videos in The Family History Guide, ranging from about 40 seconds to 90 minutes in length. We...

New from the FamilySearch Learning Center

FamilySearch has added quite a few training videos in the past few months to their Learning Center. We have gone through the list and selected over 50 new videos to link from The Family History Guide. As you would imagine, we have placed them on our site with “just-in-time” learning in mind—you find them where you need them. Below is...

Treasured Takeaways From Rootstech 2019

My mind is still flooded with the incredible memories of Rootstech this year.  It is a wonderful experience to be on the management team of The Family History Guide and to see and experience what goes on in a year’s worth of planning behind the scenes.  A big shout out to Bob Taylor and Bob Ives for the hundreds of hours of...

Introducing the Countries Knowledgebase

In a recent blog post we announced the first Knowledgebase for The Family History Guide. It covers general and United States-specific research, and as we mentioned, it is a work in progress. There are currently about 60 entries, with many more to come. You can access this Knowledgebase from any of the Partner menus (FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, or Findmypast) or...

Searching through Layers of Sources to Find Your Ancestors

Editor’s Note: This article, written by James Tanner, was originally published in the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. It is probably evident that all sources are not created equal. Some are much more equal than others. (Attribution to George Orwell). As I have been doing research, I have noticed that source records are often...

Update: Online Tracker Reporting System

At RootsTech 2019 a few weeks ago, we gave a brief demo of the upcoming Online Reporting System for The Family History Guide, and it generated quite a bit of interest, especially among family history consultants. As described in the demo, consultants will be able to create reporting groups and run online reports to show totals for skill levels achieved...

Sources, Hints, and Record Searches

We recently made some important updates to a few of the Goals in The Family History Guide. They have to do with record sources, hints and searches in FamilySearch Family Tree. Here is a summary of the changes that were made: Project 1: FamilySearch, Goal 8—Adding Sources Choice B: “Browse and sort existing sources in your family tree.” This updates...

Rootstech 2019 ~ Lots of Learners, Teachers & Consultants Sought Help

As various stats were collected after RootsTech 2019, it became apparent that The Family History Guide had some very successful experiences there.  We had three wonderful presentations. Two were given by Bob Taylor, CEO of the Family History Guide, entitled “The “Family History Guide: Accelerating Your Learning and Research”.  The two classes attracted 1350 attendees.  It is estimated that a significant number of them...

Announcing The Family History Guide Knowledgebase

Two of the main purposes of The Family History Guide are to accelerate your family history learning and research. What better way to assist with those goals, than with a handy reference that offers definitions, tips, guidelines and more. We are excited to announce the first release of our Knowledgebase for The Family History Guide, which covers general research principles...