Monthly Archive: March, 2024

Why We Need Our Family Story Now More Than Ever

We recently published a creative and heartwarming video on our YouTube Channel: Why We Need Our Family Story Now More Than Ever. This video explores the reasons for, and results of capturing and sharing our family history in interesting ways. It follows the effects of family history participation on a family through several generations, and well as providing a Latter-day...

Google Search or AI Chatbot: That Is the Question

Note: This article appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   I hope I don’t have to tell you this image is an AI generated image.I just read an article from The Verge entitled “Here’s why AI search engines really can’t kill Google.” It started me thinking about the thousands of searches I had done in the past few...

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...

Introducing FamilySearch Labs

At RootsTech 2024, FamilySearch spread the word about an exciting new venture on its website: the FamilySearch Labs. At the current time, there are five experiments you can try, after signing in to FamilySearch: Expand Your Search with Full Text – There are a few collections that can now be searched with full-text capabilities and keyword searches. A video is...

Updates to Country Pages and Menus

We recently revised and expanded the Countries menu in The Family History Guide. Here’s a summary of the changes that were made: Mexico has been added to the top area. New sections include Caribbean, Central America, and Africa. The North America section has been removed, since it is covered by United States, Canada, and Mexico in the top area, and...

The Family History Guide at the New England FamilySearch Fair

On Saturday, March 23 I (Bob Taylor) will be joining Manuel Sanhueza from FamilySearch at the New England FamilySearch Fair, held in South Royalton, Vermont. Representatives from a number of historical and genealogical societies in the New England area will also be there with booths to share information about their activities. There are general sessions, workshops, and special meetings for...

New: Links to RootsTech 2024 Videos

RootsTech 2024 wrapped up just over a week ago, but there are plenty of videos in the RootsTech On Demand Library to enjoy. We recently completed the addition of over 100 links in The Family History Guide to some of the best RootsTech videos that are currently online (we’ve been busy!) Here are some of the pages on the website...

Introducing the FamilySearch Profile Quality Score

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. RootsTech 2024 was the forum for announcing a valuable feature that helps with the FamilySearch.org Family Tree accuracy. FamilySearch announced the Profile Quality Score which is featured in the FamilySearch.org/Labs website. When this feature is activated by turning it on, it appears on Profile Page of entries in the Family Tree...

AI Update: Tools from MyHeritage and Ancestry

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming an integral part of how genealogy companies develop their tools and technologies. Two examples are MyHeritage and Ancestry, who have been in the family history business for many years. You can learn about some of their latest efforts in this article. MyHeritage MyHeritage.com has released two interesting tools: a search engine for records based...

RootsTech 2024 Highlights for The Family History Guide Association

RootsTech 2024 has come to a close, and there were plenty of memories to go around – which definitely fits the RootsTech “Remember” theme. For the Management Team of the Family History Guide Association, it was a busy and rewarding time. Here’s a recap of classes and presentations that were given by our team: James Tanner, Chairman of the Board,...