Category: Research

Brick Walls and Puzzles

Recently in The Family History Guide’s Facebook Group for Trainers, Consultants, and Leaders, I published a brief post about breaking through brick walls in research. One of the members of the Group, Dan McFadden, had an interesting reply to the post. With Dan’s permission, I am sharing his reply below, and then I will add a few additional thoughts that...

Inform, Inspire, and Unlock

To use a familiar comparison, The Family History Guide is something like an iceberg: about 90% of its content is hidden (although certainly not under water). There are menus, pictures, and instructions to guide you—and when you get farther into the site, you discover that there are links to thousands of articles and videos, right where you need them. This...

Expanding the Scope of Your Genealogical Research

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission.   One of the most common genealogical research issues I am asked to help with involves help with finding the date of one particular event in an ancestor’s or relative’s life. Most commonly, the goal is to find...

Genealogy in a Zoom World

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission.   During the recent RootsTech Connect 2021 Conference, I participated in an outreach program sponsored by the Salt Lake City, Utah Family History Library. The Family History Library has an extensive system of online consultations. Here is a screenshot...

Partnership Videos: FamilySearch and The Family History Guide

RootsTech this year was a video extravaganza, with hundreds of videos to choose from on a wide variety of family history topics. There were keynote addresses, class sessions, panel discussions, an Expo Hall, and more. The Family History Guide Association was privileged to work with FamilySearch in producing two special videos that were featured in the Beginner’s learning track at...

Small Tip for Big Results

Nature reminds us that small things lead to great things. A tiny seed becomes a rose; a little acorn becomes a great oak. It’s the same in family history. There’s something small you can do that has the potential to make a big difference. It’s simply this: when you’ve been doing family history and have to stop to focus on...

New QRB (Quick Research Basics) Videos

Since the last time we posted, there are four new Quick Research Basics (QRB) videos on our YouTube Channel: Naturalization and Passenger Records United States Church Records U.S. Travel and Migration Records Other United States Records We have provided subtitles for each of these videos in English, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, and you can select Auto-Translate in YouTube Settings to...

Don’t Get Obsessed with One Ancestor

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission.     The reality is that you have thousands upon thousands of ancestors and millions of relatives. Too often, I am approached for help in finding one ancestor’s parents. Also too often, I hear the same story about...

Finding Your Ancestors in Poor House or Poor Farm Records

Note: This article was published by James Tanner on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission.   Frederick County Poor Farm in Virginia, United States, By AgnosticPreachersKid – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48996373Poor houses and poor farms, which go by many different names, have a long history in English speaking countries. Quoting from the History.com article,...

Introducing Quick Research Basics (QRB) Videos

We’re excited to announce a new series of videos on our YouTube Channel and in The Family History Guide website: Quick Research Basics. As of this writing, there are three videos—United States Records, Forming a Research Strategy, and Developing Search Skills. About the Videos These videos range from two to three minutes each, and they are provide you with the...