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Author: James Tanner

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
September 5, 2021

Understanding Merging on the FamilySearch Family Tree

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. The FamilySearch.org Family Tree was originally seeded with previously collected individual and family histories from five major collections: the Ancestral File, the Pedigree Resource File, the International Genealogical Index, and Membership and Temple records from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These records were not directly added to the Family Tree. They were...

FamilySearch
August 22, 2021

Considering the Future of FamilySearch Family History Centers

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   https://www.familysearch.org/fhcenters/locations/ FamilySearch.org in conjunction with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Church) has a huge network of 5397 Family History Libraries and Family History Centers around the world as of the date of this post. These libraries and centers range in size and content from the Salt Lake...

Country Research/FamilySearch/Learning/Research
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