Category: U.S. Research

Link Sites and The Family History Guide

Almost every family history website, including The Family History Guide, has links to other helpful sites and resources. Based on the number of those links, you could categorize a “link” site as small, medium, large, or extra large. Although The Family History Guide is not primarily a link site, it would likely fall into the “medium” class, with a few...

Inside the Guide: Research Logs

Research logs are very important tools for successful family history research. However, they are certainly not every family historian’s favorite thing. I know that when I’m in the zone of doing family history and finding all sorts of interesting things, it can sometimes be a hassle to take a step back and enter my searches and findings into a research...

Inside the Guide: Census Charts

Charts are tools that can be useful for a variety of different purposes, particularly in genealogical research. One situation where charts can help in your research is with a census survey. When conducting a census survey, it can be tricky to remember all the details about the individual you found from each census record, such as how old they were,...

Inside the Guide: Pre-1850 Census Research Tips

Census records can provide an abundance of information about your ancestors. Some of this information could include where they lived, who lived with them, how old they were, where they were born, etc. The United States federal census records began in 1790, but the 1790-1840 censuses listed only the head of household, not every individual in the household. The other...

Inside the Guide: Creating Ancestor Timelines

During my experiences of learning about historical events in grade school, I can recall a common tool that the majority of my history teachers used to help us, as students understand a particular historical concept better. The commonly used tool was a timeline. A timeline was helpful for us as students because it provided us with a visual of the...

Welcome to Our Newest Research Intern, Rachel Carter

We are pleased to announce that Rachel Carter, a senior at Brigham Young University majoring in Family History and Genealogy, has joined the staff of The Family History Guide Association as a Research Intern. During her internship she will report to Bob Taylor, Director of Development. Here’s some background information on Rachel to help you get to know her better: “My interest...

Update: U.S. State Pages

We recently added more pictures to the U.S. state pages, in the following places for each page: Goal 3, Choice B: Marriage and Death Records Goal 4, Choice A: Church Records Goal 5, Choice A: Emigration and Immigration Goal 6, Choice A: Probate, Land, and Court Records Goal 8, Choice B: Explore Newspapers Here are some examples, based on the...

A Video Journey into the Past

In one of our recent blog posts, “Picture This …”, we discussed how more pictures have been added to the pages of The Family History Guide to make the journey even more enjoyable. And we’ve all experienced the joy of discovering photos of our ancestors that open a window in their lives—who they were, where they lived, and how they...

Context Switching and Family History: From Foe to Friend

I am proud to say that I can walk and chew gum at the same time! I’ve done it so often that I’m quite confident in my skills. When the tasks gets more complicated than that, however, I don’t always do so well. Many of us consider ourselves true multi-taskers, but there are some trade-offs there, especially when it comes to...