Category: Research

Genealogists! Free Yourselves from the Paper Prison

Note: This article by James Tanner was previously published on the Genealogy’s Start blog site and is used with the author’s permission.   Regardless of how tech-savvy genealogists may be,  collectively, we seem to acquire huge piles of paper. We can scan the documents, letters, certificates, photos, and other important paper-based items but we feel duty-bound to keep everything. Granted,...

Learning about What You Don’t Find with a Google Search

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission.   Google searches give the impression that they are omnipotent but if you understand how information is stored and the amount of information that is still on paper and not visible to Google at all, you realize that...

Jewish Holidays and Family History

One of the significant benefits of dong family history is the opportunity to learn about cultures and traditions. For our Jewish friends and ancestors, this past weekend introduced the High Holy Days, with two of the most significant holidays on the calendar. Rosh Hashana was celebrated from September 18-20, and Yom Kippur will be coming up September 27-28. Here’s a...

Resources for the Mayflower Passengers and Their Descendants

Note: This article by James Tanner appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission.   2020 is the 400th Anniversary of the landing of the passengers of the Mayflower. Here is a very short summary of the voyage from Wikipedia: Mayflower. Mayflower was an English ship that transported the first English Puritans, known today...

Giving Back to Your Community through Family History

Note: This article by Miles Meyer was previously published on the Miles Meyer Genealogy blog site and is used with the author’s permission. As family historians, much of our work is to record the history of our families and try to tell the stories of our ancestors. Some of us have specialized in specific parts of our research such as...

How Do Genealogically Significant Records Get Preserved? Part One

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. Let’s suppose that your great-grandfather wrote a journal during his lifetime and you are the member of the family that ends up with the journal. You might have a couple of concerns: how do you preserve the document...

Discovering History in Geography

A crucial part of genealogical research is knowing the history of the location where your ancestors grew up. As a student majoring in family history at Brigham Young University, one of the many requirements that I have to accomplish in order to graduate is to take several history courses. The first few courses cover a brief overview of U.S. and...

When Is a Brick Wall Not a Brick Wall?

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission.   As I have written and presented previously, the concept of a “brick wall” in genealogical research is not very helpful. Here is a video I did a couple of years ago about how to resolve the problem....

A Mayflower Story

This coming November marks the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower ship. There are many noteworthy stories of Mayflower passengers and history; a notable recounting is on the Mayflower Story website. I have several friends who are direct descendants of William Brewster, a passenger who became the leader of the Plymouth Colony. However, my Mayflower ancestors, John Howland and...

Indexing, Handwriting, and Google

Over the past few months I have been indexing FamilySearch death records from South Africa. It has been an interesting experience, and I have gained a new appreciation for the culture and people of that country. Indexing gives you a brief glimpse into the lives of people whom you otherwise never would have known. One of the educational benefits of...