James Tanner – Page 5 – The Family History Guide Blog

February 27, 2022

Revisiting Proof and Truth in Genealogy

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. Can you prove it? Is what you post in your family tree the truth? In the context of genealogical research, do either of these terms have any meaning? Can these questions even be answered? Genealogical research focuses on a limited part of the world’s history; that part pertaining...

Records/Research

February 6, 2022

If you don’t share it, you lose it! – Part One

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. I am writing about losing all the genealogical work you have done during your lifetime. Literally, if you do not share your work with others, particularly those in your family, you will lose it all when you die. I may have written about this before, but it bears...

Memories/Research

January 16, 2022

About Accuracy in Genealogical Research

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. The fundamental issue with historical research (including genealogical research) is accuracy. How do you establish trust in the conclusions of a historical (i.e. genealogical) researcher? For the purposes of this post and from this point on, I will focus on genealogical research as a subset of historical...

Records/Research

January 10, 2022

The Return of “What is a Source?”

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. I looked back on the list of my blog titles and found that the last time I wrote about what is a source was in 2015. I wrote a very long blog post that few probably understood or read completely through. If you want to try, here...

Country Research/Research

December 27, 2021

The WikiTree Challenge Week: A Great Opportunity and Experience

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. Somehow, I was chosen to be the focus of a WikiTree Challenge. This is when a team of WikiTree volunteers focus on the tree of a “special guest star.” Quoting from the Help page for the WikiTree Challenge: In 2021 we have focused on “genealogy stars” such as bestselling...

Research/U.S. Research

November 28, 2021

FamilySearch and Computer-assisted Indexing for Digitized Records

Note: This article was previously published on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2021-10-29/computer-assisted-indexing-familysearch-records-231067This article is interesting from several different aspects. First, there are some interesting and updated statistics. Here is a quote with some of the statistics from the above linked article to start out. In September, FamilySearch announced a milestone 83 years in the making — the completion...

FamilySearch/Technology

October 31, 2021

Publication Online of the 1921 Census of England and Wales

Quoting from an email announcement from Findmypast.com, Findmypast and The National Archives have announced that the 1921 Census of England & Wales will be published online on 6 January 2022. From that day forward, everyone will be able to search and explore the census online, only at Findmypast. For the first time, the details of 38 million people captured in over...

Country Research

October 24, 2021

The 10 Most Common Mistakes in Online Family Trees

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. The number one all time most common mistake observed in online family trees arises from copying some other person’s family tree information especially if the information comes from paper family group sheets or an old GEDCOM file. The fact that you inherited information from a relative, even...

FamilySearch/Research

September 26, 2021

What Does It Take to Have Access to Genealogical Records?

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. Each of the large online genealogy family tree/record websites advertises the large number of records they have available for doing user research. In many cases there are various levels of indexing to support the records they claim to have available. But access is not determined by the...

Country Research/Records/Research

September 19, 2021

Following Your Ancestors on the FamilySearch Family Tree

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. In social networking, following has become endemic. In this context, when we “follow” someone, we are interested in learning about what happens in their lives. On the FamilySearch.org Family Tree, following is considerably different. The function of following is to learn about any changes being made to a particular individual...

Country Research/FamilySearch/Research

Author: James Tanner