Category: U.S. Research

Genealogical Research: How far back in time can you go?

Note: This article by James Tanner appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. Why You Can’t Trace Your Lineage Back to Adam It has been quite a while since I posted this video to the Brigham Young University Family History Library YouTube Channel. The video has had about 4,000+ views but the subject...

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...

Freedom, Family, and Perspective

Several days ago my wife and I watched “Hamilton” in its streaming debut. The music and stage production were, of course, terrific. My wife was more familiar with the songs and dialog, and she finally was able to see the faces and places associated with the words. As I thought about what I had seen, three basic concepts came to...

Where was the event? Where are the records?

Editor’s Note: This article by James Tanner appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. The questions in the title of this post are two separate but closely related issues. To start, I will repeat a general guideline for all genealogical researchers: The place of an event in an ancestor’s or relative’s life...

Memorial Day: Remembering Those We Lost

My brother-in-law, Mark Sargeant, served in the United States Army for over 20 years as a Military Intelligence officer. His duties took him and his family to Arizona, Germany, Georgia, Kansas, and Nebraska. He retired in late 1999 and worked for 10 years for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, assisting with the security of missionaries in Africa...

How to Analyze Genealogical Sources: Part Five

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by James Tanner in the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. Analyzing genealogical records and documents boils down to making decisions about the accuracy of the records and documents. One of the most common categorizations of documents makes a distinction between an original document and a copy. This...

Searching for Clues: When Census and Vital Records Are Not Enough

Growing up as a kid, I loved watching movies about finding lost treasure. The hero usually hears of a legend, finds an ancient artifact or treasure map, and has to follow its clues while fighting off the greedy villain. After a long and difficult struggle, the hero finds the treasure and everything works out in the end! Family history can...

Source Citations: Where Did That Information Come From?

Editor’s note: This article was written by Zachary Matthews, BYU Intern for the Family History Guide Association. You are at your computer, getting ready to do some genealogical research on your favorite website. You decided to go in a different direction today and look at your 5th great–grandmother’s uncle and his family. However, when you clicked on his profile, you...

Update: Ancestry Academy Videos

Ancestry Academy has published training videos on a wide variety of genealogy topics. many of which are linked from The Family History Guide. You may not be aware that recently Ancestry Academy has made some changes in their video catalog. Here’s a summary: The URL formats for most of the articles have changed. The new URLs are included in The...

A New Partnership: The Family History Guide and Goldie May

Last week we featured an article written by James Tanner about the new Goldie May research assistant. It’s a powerful and user-friendly Chrome extension that helps you track your research progress on FamilySearch. This week we are excited to announce that Goldie May has been selected as an Authorized Training Partner for The Family History Guide Association. What This Means...