Category: Learning

Exploring the DPLA (Digital Public Library of America)

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is an all-digital library that collects information (metadata) from libraries, museums and institutions around the country. It enables you to search millions of records from partner libraries and organizations at once. The DPLA is free and does not require a library card, so the possibilities for online family history research are extensive. Here...

New in The Family History Guide: The Tour

About a month ago we introduced a Get Started page that is driven by common questions that people ask about family history and genealogy. The page has links to pages in The Family History Guide that answer these questions, helping you get off to a good start in your family history journey. But what if you are new to The...

A New Way to Get Started

One of the key pages in The Family History Guide is getting a makeover—it’s the Get Started page in the Intro menu. The previous look featured tiles and options to click for items of interest; the new look is question-driven. In fact, the page begins with a question: “How Do I …?” From there, you’ll see a list of starred...

Pioneers, Across the Years

On July 24, many in the United States will celebrate Pioneer Day, honoring the day when the first wagons of the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. Amid great persecution, they left their homes and lands and made the Utah desert blossom as the rose. Their stories are well-documented, and you can find many of them on the internet...

What’s Happening with Genealogically Oriented Publications?

Editor’s Note: This article by James Tanner was originally published in the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. As digitized books, newspapers, journals, and magazines became available online, there was a lot of speculation about the demise of paper publications. Despite claims to the contrary, genealogy has never been an overwhelming popular topic but the...

Fitting Family History into Your Life

Question: How do you squeeze a huge object (family history) into a small box (your free time to work on it)? Answer: In small pieces. As explained in the 15 Minutes page of The Family History Guide, you can accomplish some amazing things with your family history by approaching it in segments of 15 minutes or more. In the “Fitting...

Putting Your Ancestor into Historical Context

In my last blog post, I used several examples from my research of Gideon Tripp and his father-in-law Benjamin Watts, along with both of their families. I worked on these two families as part of a research project for a class I took earlier this year. As I was researching their residence in Sangamon County, Illinois from the mid 1830’s...

Spring Cleaning with The Family History Guide

The Family History Guide has grown by leaps and bounds over the past few months. We are bringing you more content, more links, and more country pages for example. Also, website platforms such as FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Findmypast continue to make updates to their websites as well. So now is a good time for some “spring cleaning” on The...

Who’s Interviewing You? How to Tell Your Story

There are many instances where someone asks us something about our past. It may be a new found friend or our children and grandchildren, with such questions as, “What was it like?” or “How did you two meet?” They usually are not seeking for one-liners like “It was quite difficult,” or “We met at high school.” Rather, they want stories...

Checking Out the 100+ Top Blogs

Recently I’ve been going through a list of the “Top 100 Blog Sites” in the world, on https://blog.feedspot.com/genealogy_blogs, as well as some not on the list. The idea is to find links to additional articles that would be beneficial for The Family History Guide. It has been well worth the effort, as hundreds of new links have been added from...