Category: U.S. Research

BYU FHL Webinar: United States Research with The Family History Guide

The webinar “United States Research with The Family History Guide” is now available for viewing on the BYU Family History Library YouTube channel. Here are some of the topics covered: Record types and use strategies Vital and cemetery records U.S. Censuses Immigration and Naturalization Military Records Church Records Land and Probate Records Doing research in states and counties Tools for...

Update on The Family History Guide Practice Exercises

The Practice Exercises for The Family History Guide country pages continue to roll along. We now have almost 450 exercises for a variety of records, with problem statements, hints, and answers. As of this writing, the exercises cover 39 countries, 50 U.S. states, and 39 England counties. The Practice Exercises page in the Trainers menu explains how to use the...

Live and Unrehearsed Video Series: Episodes 36-38

Here are some recent videos from the “Live and Unrehearsed” series. These video will give you insight into how to do research online. They are released on the Goldie May YouTube Channel. Below are the links to Episodes 36, 37, and 38: Episode 36 explore FAN-club (Friends, Associates, and Neighbors) research in Iowa. Episode 37 uses books and cemetery information...

Getting to Know Genealogy Trails

GenealogyTrails.com is a handy website that focuses on United States research, particularly for U.S. states and counties. It’s a collaboration effort run by a series of expert volunteers, with lots of great resources that are hard to find on other sites. Their forte is transcribing many thousands of records, such as military, obituary, biographies, voter registrations, and more. In The...

About the 10 Million Names Project from American Ancestors

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   https://10millionnames.org/ The 10 Million Names is a collaborative project that includes many prominent genealogical and academic organizations. See https://10millionnames.org/collaborators. The objective of the project is described in the Project’s Mission Statement. 10 Million Names is a collaborative project dedicated to recovering the names of the estimated 10 million...

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...

Researching the Pioneers

July 24 is the day the Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake valley in the United States. Genealogist James Tanner recently recorded a video for the BYU Family History Library, titled Crossing the Plains: Researching American Pioneers. This video covers the Oregon Trail, Mexican War, Mormon Trail, California Gold Rush, and much more. A link to the video is...

Tracing Your Ancestors in Colonial America

As we celebrate Independence Day in the United States in the next few days, let’s remember our ancestors who lived in British Colonial America (what the United States used to be). There are some helpful resources in The Family History Guide to get you started or help you further your research, as you discover your ancestors’ lives. Let’s take a...

Try a New Source – NUMIDENT

Note: This article was published previously on the Granite FamilySearch Center blog site. One of the new sources added to FamilySearch this year is NUMIDENT which stands for “Numerical Identification Files.” The U.S. Social Security Administration created NUMIDENT files to record the earnings of US workers and to determine what benefits each person was authorized to have. The index only contains...

New in The Family History Guide: Record Search Practice Exercises

If you have been looking for ways to sharpen your record search skills, the new Record Search Practice Exercises in The Family History Guide may be just what you’ve been looking for. The Format The Practice Exercises use the following format: Record Search Practice Objective – a statement of the problem to solve, including several questions to answer. Hints –...