Research – The Family History Guide Blog

December 27, 2025

An Update of the Now Seventeen Rules of Genealogy

Note: This article appeared previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. The recent BYU Library Family History Center webinar “An Update of the Now Seventeen Rules of Genealogy” is also available on YouTube – https://youtu.be/mDIGO80_xCM. Here is a summary of the YouTube video. This presentation, delivered by James Tanner at the BYU Library Family History Center, provides a vital “reality...

Country Research/Research/YouTube Comments: 0

December 1, 2025

New in TFHG: “I Have a Question”

We are excited to introduce the “I Have a Question” page in The Family History Guide. As of this writing, the page features eight videos that each answer a commonly asked question about doing family history research. The videos are brief, about 90 seconds each, and are hosted by our friendly avatars. You can find the I Have a Question...

Learning/Research/What is new at The FHG

October 18, 2025

New Layout for the Guided Learning Page

If you have visited the Guided Learning page in The Family History Guide, you’ve seen the bullet lists of links to various guided research videos. As we have added more videos, those lists are getting a bit long; so we have switched to links that use image thumbnails, which also adds visual appeal. Here’s a brief example (links not active...

Research/What is new at The FHG/YouTube

October 18, 2025

Name the Town, Find the Ancestors

I have a friend who was recently called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the Birmingham England Mission. I sent him an email to ask what town he was currently in, and he said that the town is Bury St. Edmunds, in Suffolk county. That rang a bell, as I remembered...

Ancestry/Country Research/Research

October 12, 2025

Finding Records Lost Online in the AI Universe

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. FamilySearch.org‘s Full-text Search capability is an overwhelming change to way genealogical searches are conducted and may well modify or replace any current way of searching historical documents. At the heart of using a previously unavailable tool for genealogical research is an artificial intelligence supported handwriting recognition. Currently, the...

artificial intelligence/Country Research/Research/Technology

August 31, 2025

New: Guided Learning Video Series

We are excited to introduce a new series of videos for The Family History Guide—Guided Learning. As of this writing there are seven videos, ranging from an overview of the series to online search techniques. Each video is accompanied by a personal guide who leads the learner through the course material. About Guided Learning The Guided Learning videos focus mostly...

Research/What is new at The FHG/YouTube

August 17, 2025

Handling Record Problems

“It says so in that record!” … but is it really so? Sometimes the information we find in a record might not be a sure thing. Goal 7 of Project 4: Discover in the Family History Guide sheds some welcome light on potential problems with records. Here is a brief summary of the links to essential articles and videos you’ll...

Records/Research

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

July 6, 2025

Happy 4th of July Weekend

We hope you all had an enjoyable and safe 4th of July weekend! Getting to know your Colonial America ancestors can be very enlightening, and there are quite a lot of records available. Here are some resources in The Family History Guide that will help you do that, arranged by category. Revolutionary War Research New England Research Early American /...

Records/Research/U.S. Research

June 29, 2025

Using Photos for Research

When we focus on our family history research, we often think only about finding documents and records. Photographs can be a valuable research tool, providing clues that match people with locations, events, and other people. The Family History Guide has some great resources for using photos to further your research, in Goal 7 of Project 4: Discover. Here is a...

Memories/Research

The Family History Guide Blog

Category: Research