U.S. Research – The Family History Guide Blog

May 24, 2026

Happy Memorial Day!

Today, May 25, is the day we pause and remember all those who have given their lives serving in the United States military during the long history of the country. Here are a few interesting facts about Memorial Day, from Wikipedia: Researching Your Military Ancestors with The Family History Guide The Family History Guide has some helpful resources for tracing...

U.S. Research Comments: 0

March 21, 2026

Researching Indentured, Transported, and Enslaved Ancestors

Note: This article was originally published on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. Note: The time links refer to the video. A “brick wall” is a common frustration for genealogists, particularly when an ancestor seems to “magically appear” in the American colonies with no discernible connection to an overseas origin. For many researchers, this missing link is not a matter of...

artificial intelligence/Country Research/U.S. Research

March 15, 2026

New RootsTech Video Links in TFHG

RootsTech 2026 produced hundreds of videos in the online library, covering a wide variety of family history topics. We have added nearly 100 new links in The Family History Guide to some of the best of these videos. About half of the new additions are on the following pages (look for the 2026 dates): Also, over 50 videos were added...

Research/RootsTech/U.S. Research/What is new at The FHG/YouTube

November 9, 2025

What’s New with Guided Learning Videos

The work with Guided Learning videos in The Family History Guide rolls on! Here are the latest Guided Learning videos, since our last blog post on October 18: New Inline Links The Guided Learning videos are gradually replacing the Class Oulines in the main pages of The Family History Guide. (Class Outlines are still available from the Trainers menu.) We...

U.S. Research/What is new at The FHG

October 13, 2025

New Practice Exercises, England Counties

Over the past few weeks we have begun adding Record Search Practice Exercises for England counties. Below are the new additions so far, with more to come. Note: the census links below apply to electoral records. (There are already quite a few church and cemetery Practice Exercises for England counties.) To access the England county pages, use the the alphabetical...

Country Research/U.S. Research

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

July 20, 2025

Pioneer Day and The Family History Guide

Thursday, July 24 marks the 178th anniversary of the Mormon pioneers arriving in the Salt Lake valley. There will be many celebrations throughout the state of Utah and other locations to commemorate this event. If you are interested in researching Mormon pioneer ancestors, The Family History Guide can help. Check out Goal F1 in the United States page. Choice B...

U.S. 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 1, 2025

The Value of Original Records

It’s a familiar theme: when we see something in print, we often view it as authoritative, especially if it comes from a source we are familiar with. But not all genealogical records are of equal value, and some may even contain errors or misleading information. Finding original records can be important in your research, and knowing how to handle the...