Year in Review: The Top 20 for 2024

This past year was a memorable one for The Family History Guide. Here’s a look back at 20 of the events and website features that made 2024 a special year:

20. AI Goal added—With artificial intelligence being applied to genealogy in new ways, this new Goal in The Family History Guide helps you get up to speed on ChatGPT, handwriting recognition, language translation, and other AI tools.

19. New England FH Fair—This event in May would have had a much broader impact were it not for the untimely snowstorms that made local travel to the Fair difficult. Still, the attendees had a great time, with excellent speakers and fabulous scenery in upstate Vermont.

18. TFHG Intro video in Spanish—The English version of this video is on our list, below. This version offers Spanish-speaking guests a first look at The Family History Guide, with screenshots in Spanish and an emphasis on research in Latin American countries.

17. Video: Why I Love TFHG—This video gives a great youth perspective on family history and The Family History Guide, and it’s narrated by a teen family history enthusiast.

16. Inside the Guide—This is a new playlist of videos on our YouTube Channel that highlights useful and interesting sites and databases mentioned in country pages of The Family History Guide. The first three videos are for Canada, Ireland, and Germany, with England and other countries to follow after.

15. Country Quizzes—We’ve had quizzes in the Trainers menu for quite a while, but recently we added 30 new quizzes for country pages, based on our QRB (Quick Research Basics) videos. Each quiz has 5 questions, with a passing score of at least 4 correct responses.

14. 2-Minute Demos—There’s a new entry in the Trainers menu for 2-Minute Demos. It includes quick and easy quotes you can use when introducing others to The Family History Guide, arranged by these categories: Website Overview, More Features, Country Pages, United States Research, Activities, and Trainers.

13. TFHG on Paper—While there’s no printed book for The Family History Guide, there’s a two-page summary of features that can easily be used as a handout when giving a presentation about the website.

12. 70+ Tasks for FamilySearch and The Family History Guide—Looking for traction with FamilySearch tasks? This PDF outlines over 70 things you can do on FamilySearch, assisted by The Family History Guide. Links are included to TFHG topics that help you complete the tasks.

11. Enhanced Countries menu—We’ve added regional entries for the Caribbean, Central America, and Africa, while removing North America (it’s covered in the other entries). More country links have also been added in several of the regions.

10. NGS Virtual Conference—This conference for the National Genealogical Society was all-virtual in 2024, and it was very successful. It used the Whova online platform to link up presenters, exhibitors, keynotes and members, and The Family History Guide Association had a good presence at the conference.

9. 5-Minute Features videos—On our YouTube Channel we created a 5-Minute Features playlist. It includes a number of brief videos that introduce you to key features in The Family History Guide and provide tips on using them effectively.

8. Online Tracker Sheets—Need an alternative to the Online Tracker database for tracking your learning progress? Try the new Online Tracker Sheets. They are Google Sheets you can download and edit, with the ability to add and customize entries, get more typing space, etc.

7. New Practice Exercises—There are now over 800 Record Search Practice Exercises in The Family History Guide, spanning most countries in the world as well as U.S. states. These help you get practical experience using a wide variety of records to solve sample research problems.

6. TFHG Intro video, 2024—We updated the 20-minute Intro video for The Family History Guide on the Home Page, to provide a website overview and highlight new features. This video can be especially useful for organizations that present The Family History Guide and would like a handy review online.

5. Brent Bunker, Content Specialist—This year we welcomed Brent Bunker, from Newport, Oregon, to our Management Team as a Content Specialist. Brent has already created hundreds of new Practice Exercises and updated QUIKLinks for record collections around the world.

4. Weekly FH Activities, updated—Our Marketing Director, Angelle Anderson, devoted a tremendous amount of time in updating the Weekly Family History Activities that serve as a family history companion to the Come, Follow Me lessons. We are now working on completing the series for 2025.

3. RootsTech 2024—The Family History Guide Association had a terrific year at RootsTech 2024, with a large exhibitor booth near FamilySearch and plenty of classes delivered by Management Team members such as James Tanner, Miles Meyer, Scott and Angelle Anderson, and Bob Taylor. Preparations are underway for the RootsTech 2025 experience.

1. (Tie) Partnership: NGS and TFHG—In February the National Genealogical Society (NGS) announced an educational partnership with The Family History Guide Association, who will provide NGS member organizations with training on using The Family History Guide to accelerate the learning and research progress of members and teams.

1. Viewpoint Project—”Viewpoint with Dennis Quaid” is a popular educational series that is broadcast on PBS and its affiliates across the U.S. Early in 2025 The Family History Guide will be featured in videos that will reach an estimated 60 to 80 million Americans, helping to introduce many to genealogy as a pastime or a lifelong pursuit.

 

Bob Taylor

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