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September 13, 2020

Giving Back to Your Community through Family History

Note: This article by Miles Meyer was previously published on the Miles Meyer Genealogy blog site and is used with the author’s permission. As family historians, much of our work is to record the history of our families and try to tell the stories of our ancestors. Some of us have specialized in specific parts of our research such as...

FamilySearch/Research

September 13, 2020

How Do Genealogically Significant Records Get Preserved? Part One

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. Let’s suppose that your great-grandfather wrote a journal during his lifetime and you are the member of the family that ends up with the journal. You might have a couple of concerns: how do you preserve the document...

Memories/Research

September 6, 2020

Discovering History in Geography

A crucial part of genealogical research is knowing the history of the location where your ancestors grew up. As a student majoring in family history at Brigham Young University, one of the many requirements that I have to accomplish in order to graduate is to take several history courses. The first few courses cover a brief overview of U.S. and...

Country Research/Records/Research

September 6, 2020

Getting to Know the FamilySearch Community

Sometimes the answer to a question might be so obvious that we may overlook it. For example, if you want to learn family history step by step, The Family History Guide is a great place to visit. (Of course, I had to mention that!) And if you are looking for a place to connect with others who are working on...

FamilySearch

September 6, 2020

When Is a Brick Wall Not a Brick Wall?

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. As I have written and presented previously, the concept of a “brick wall” in genealogical research is not very helpful. Here is a video I did a couple of years ago about how to resolve the problem....

Country Research/Records/Research

August 30, 2020

A Mayflower Story

This coming November marks the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower ship. There are many noteworthy stories of Mayflower passengers and history; a notable recounting is on the Mayflower Story website. I have several friends who are direct descendants of William Brewster, a passenger who became the leader of the Plymouth Colony. However, my Mayflower ancestors, John Howland and...

Memories/Research/Stories

August 30, 2020

Indexing, Handwriting, and Google

Over the past few months I have been indexing FamilySearch death records from South Africa. It has been an interesting experience, and I have gained a new appreciation for the culture and people of that country. Indexing gives you a brief glimpse into the lives of people whom you otherwise never would have known. One of the educational benefits of...

Research

August 30, 2020

The Genealogical Overburden of Duplicate Work

Note: This article by James Tanner was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site and is used with the author’s permission. The definition of “overburden” that I am using here refers to the “rock or soil overlying a mineral deposit, archaeological site, or other underground feature.” Google Dictionary. In doing genealogical research it is necessary to remove the “overburden”...

FamilySearch/Research

August 23, 2020

The Value of Case Studies in Family History

“Could I have an example, please?” This is one of the most common questions we all have, about almost any subject, whether or not we ask it out loud. Good examples help us connect the dots in our learning. They help us see relationships between pieces of information, how cause and effect works, and how we can apply principles in...

Case Studies/Research/U.S. Research

August 23, 2020

What’s New in The Family History Guide

Here’s a brief review of some of the latest updates to The Family History Guide website. Some of them have been mentioned in previous blog posts, so the links to those articles are also included. Get Started We’ve changed the focus of the Get Started page. It was previously a group of alternatives to choose from; now it’s driven by...

What is new at The FHG