Category: Records

Always New Records on FamilySearch.org

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   If you look closely at the date these records were added to FamilySearch.org, you will see that they are the same day that this post is being written. The process of adding all these records and thousands more each day is complex. It starts with a pile...

BYU-I Pathways and The Family History Guide: Practice Exercise Initiative

BYU-Idaho and BYU Pathways Worldwide have teamed up to provide a popular Family History Research curriculum, available online and quite affordable (as low as $81 per credit). As noted in an earlier blog post on this site, this curriculum refers to The Family History Guide as an important resource in its downloadable course handbook. We are excited to announce a...

Goldie May Now on FamilySearch Portal and Free in FamilySearch Centers

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   One of the most innovative and useful programs that have been developed in the past few years, GoldieMay.com is now included in the FamilySearch Portal and is therefore free to use in all FamilySearch Centers. If you need a quick review about the program, here is a video from...

Finding Unusual Record Sources

When it comes to family history research. most of us are well aware of vital records, such as birth, marriage, and death records. There are also records for immigration, church, military, and more. But as Laura Szucs Pfeiffer describes in her book “Hidden Sources – Family History in Unlikely Places” there are other places to find records about your ancestors,...

United States Social Security NUMIDENT Records Added to FamilySearch

Note: This article appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. This is one of the collections of 63,700,494 records on the FamilySearch.org website that has only been available for a relatively short time. Here is the description of the files from the FamilySearch.org entry shown above. The Social Security Administration created these records to track the earnings of US workers and...

New QRB Videos on Our YouTube Channel

Recently we posted eight new QRB (Quick Research Basics) videos on The Family History Guide YouTube Channel. These include A three-part series on Adding Social History to Your Family History, by Miles Meyer A three-part series on Mapping Your Way to Genealogical Success, by James Tanner A two-part series on U.S. Census Records, by Miles Meyer We have also included...

Afro-American Research in The Family History Guide

On this holiday in the United States, we pay tribute to a great leader for human rights: Dr. Martin Luther King. His legacy is still being felt in the lives of countless people around the world. On a separate note, many Black people in the United States and abroad have discovered the power of family history to connect generations and...

Access – The Real Genealogical Challenge

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   During the last two years or so, I had online consultations through the FamilySearch Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. These consultations last twenty minutes and I usually schedule eight a week. The FamilySearch Family History Library has a link to get Research Help. Here...

What Are the Oldest Reliable Genealogical Records?

Note: This article was previously published on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. The oldest records that can be reliably used for genealogical research depend entirely on the place where the records may have been kept. Some Chinese records go back more than 2000 years, but English parish records begin in 1538. If you live in Utah, the first genealogical records...

FamilySearch Update: Reverse Hints

If you have been on the FamilySearch site for a while, you’re likely familiar with those blue record hint icons that pop up in the Family Tree view. They point you to possible record sources for the ancestor with the icon, and they have long been a valuable part of the FamilySearch experience. Now, after years of waiting, the circle...