Inside the Guide: Tips for Basic Danish Research

My paternal grandfather crossed the ocean from Copenhagen, Denmark to North America with his family when he was only two years old. Family tradition states that he got so sick on the voyage, that the crew thought they should just throw him overboard to the fishes. While I am eternally grateful that didn’t happen, I’ve considered doing the same thing...

Late Bloomers

A while back, I delivered a keynote address on The Family History Guide at the Pikes Peak Family History Fair in Colorado. It was well-received, and there were numerous FamilySearch volunteers there to help everything run smoothly. Two experiences I had there are still fresh in my mind, having made a lasting impression on me – both having to do...

The Human Knot

You may be familiar with the lively, entertaining, interactive activity The Human Knot. The instructions are simple: Gather as a family or group and stand in a cluster. Grab each other’s hands then try to untangle yourselves into a continuous circle without letting go of each other’s hands! What implications for family history can be found in this activity, and how...

Inside the Guide: Merging Duplicates on FamilySearch

Merging duplicates on FamilySearch is an important process that should be done very carefully and thoroughly. Before merging, you take two separate entries and analyze them to see whether they represent the same person. If you merge two entries together who were not the same person, that can be fixed; however it can also create discrepancies in your FamilySearch Family...

Link Sites and The Family History Guide

Almost every family history website, including The Family History Guide, has links to other helpful sites and resources. Based on the number of those links, you could categorize a “link” site as small, medium, large, or extra large. Although The Family History Guide is not primarily a link site, it would likely fall into the “medium” class, with a few...

The Power of Family Recipes

It may be making mom’s potato salad (though it never tastes quite as yummy) or mixing up grandpa’s famous peanut butter fudge that spurs childhood memories and turns an ordinary moment into a bonding one. Cooking recipes from our heritage can bring a sense of togetherness that spans generations by strengthening ties with the living and the dead. Family recipes are...

Inside the Guide: Research Logs

Research logs are very important tools for successful family history research. However, they are certainly not every family historian’s favorite thing. I know that when I’m in the zone of doing family history and finding all sorts of interesting things, it can sometimes be a hassle to take a step back and enter my searches and findings into a research...

Taking Off with FamilySearch

Are you “stuck on the ground” trying to learn and use FamilySearch? Or perhaps you are expending a lot more effort to gain a little more elevation. In either case, if you’ve dreamed of flying high with FamilySearch, then The Family History Guide could be just what you’re looking for. Let’s examine how you can lift your FamilySearch game. no...

The Amazing Audio Feature of The FamilySearch Memories App

A few weeks ago, my husband and I took my eighty-seven-year-old father to visit his ninety-seven-year-old brother in a nearby city. Holding each other’s hands, they reminisced about memories such as planning to run away from home as young boys. They laughed at how their mom offered to make them sack lunches to take along in case they got hungry....

Updating the Vault

If you’ve been meaning to check out the Vault in The Family History Guide, now’s a great time to do it. The Vault is where we keep links to extra articles and videos on family history topics. The Vault has been a popular (but not creepy) hangout place for genealogists, since The Family History Guide was created. We recently added...