FamilySearch – The Family History Guide Blog

September 28, 2025

Full-Text Search and FamilySearch Records

At the end of August, FamilySearch released full-text search as a feature on their main website. In a nutshell, full-text search enables you to search for keywords in the actual text of the record, even if the record has not yet been indexed. Previously, unindexed records could be quite difficult to work with due to large amounts of scrolling or...

artificial intelligence/FamilySearch/Technology/What is new at The FHG Comments: 0

September 6, 2025

What I Learned from 1418 Consultations for FamilySearch

Note: This article has been updated to reflect that FamilySearch consultations have not been discontinued. During the past five years, I have scheduled 1418 online consultations for FamilySearch.org. These consultations originated from the Salt Lake City FamilySearch Library website. There were dozens of people volunteering to respond to the consultation requests, mostly Church Service Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of...

Country Research/FamilySearch/Learning/Training/U.S. Research Comments: 0

August 10, 2025

FamilySearch Improved Merge Experience

Note: This article appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. One basic fact about online family trees is their propensity to create duplicates. This apparently stems from the belief by each family tree contributor that their work is somehow unique and completely accurate. When this belief in uniqueness and accuracy is extended to the large online family tree websites,...

FamilySearch/Research

August 4, 2025

The FamilySearch Together App

Recently FamilySearch introduced the Together app on its website. Here’s a brief description from a FamilySearch Help Center article: “Together by FamilySearch is an exciting new way for youth to connect with their parents, grandparents, and other family members. Users will find ways to develop stronger family bonds and create lasting memories through interactive games and activities.” Here are the...

Family History Activities/FamilySearch/Technology

June 29, 2025

Major update to FamilySearch England Jurisdictions 1851 Map

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. The England Jurisdictions Map of 1851 has been a long-time FamilySearch.org feature. It has disappeared for times in the past and recently has had its own location. The URL for the map is unique: https://www.familysearch.org/en/mapp/ Yes, the URL has two “ps” in map. This FamilySearch.org website is relatively obscure...

Country Research/FamilySearch

June 20, 2025

RootsTech Highlights The Family History Guide

A week ago, FamilySearch sent out an email to RootsTech subscribers that noted upcoming webinars and industry highlights. In the Industry Highlights section of the email, The Family History Guide was mentioned with a link to the site: “The Family History Guide is a learning, resource, and activities center for family history. It’s designed for all levels, from beginners to...

FamilySearch/RootsTech/The Family History Guide Association/Uncategorized

April 27, 2025

New at FamilySearch: “Get Involved” Replaces User Indexing

You could say it’s the end of an era and the beginning of a new one – volunteer indexing of FamilySearch records came to a close on April 21, which means that record batches can no longer be checked out for indexing as they have been in the past. Why the end to traditional indexing? First, a bit of background...

artificial intelligence/FamilySearch/Records

February 3, 2025

FamilySearch 2024 Year in Review

Note: This article appeared previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. FamilySearch 2024 Year in Review FamilySearch.org I realize we are getting well into 2025, but I am always fascinated by what happened in the past year. FamilySearch.org had a banner year and from my standpoint, more than I can quickly learn about is coming in 2025. I do, however,...

FamilySearch

January 13, 2025

What’s New in The Family History Guide

From time to time we add new features and items to The Family History Guide website, and when we do, they usually end up in a blog post like this. So here goes, with several things that have been added in the last few weeks … 1. 70+ Tasks to Do with FamilySearch and The Family History Guide—This is a...

FamilySearch/What is new at The FHG

December 7, 2024

70+ Family History Tasks, with FamilySearch & The Family History Guide

When we think about what an individual’s part of FamilySearch Family Tree may look like, there’s a wide range of possibilities. Some people are just starting to build their tree information, while others have extensive pedigrees that go back many generations on many lines. And of course, there are lots of variations in between for countless other users. So if...

FamilySearch/General/Learning/What is new at The FHG

The Family History Guide Blog

Category: FamilySearch