Note: This article by Kyla Bayang was originally posted on the Rootsquad Roundup on Substack.

Since I recommend this website as a first stop for genealogy education to newbies, when I heard about their updates in a recent blog post, I decided it was time to check it out again. And, of course, we can all use new resources to brush up on our research skills from time to time! The Family Tree Guide content creators do a good job of updating the information and screenshots when there are major website changes or when new tools are added.

One great Family History Guide feature I have always been thankful for is the online progress tracker to help monitor the personal learning process. So useful to me to be able to keep track of lesson completion, to make notes, and to bookmark sections to save. Anyone can view any of the information on the site without an account, it is completely free to all, but since the site does not collect any personal information other than username and password, I felt comfortable creating one to monitor my own educational process.

The main four learning paths are FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and Findmypast, and that’s a great place to start for an overview of these main genealogy platforms. Most of these paths contain links to updated videos from the platforms themselves, and screenshots to walk through the basic tasks, such as setting up an account and adding individuals.

Family Tree Guide’s more recent feature addition is called “Guided Learning,” which includes links to videos created specifically by Family Tree Guide. I’m pretty impressed with this layout for genealogy education. I am going to start recommending this path to beginners.

Guided Learning

If you are interested in involving the entire family, there is an entire section of family history activities and memory-keeping ideas. This includes sections for individuals, families, youth, kids, and homeschool resources as well. I even used some of these ideas for family reunion planning! The part I like the best in this section is the Activities Index – a list by categories such as games, DNA, timelines, arts and crafts – with links with an * marking activities that take little or no prep time. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to involve and interest our younger generation or even our own siblings in the family history research we do, here are some GREAT ideas to help with that.

If you’re an ‘experienced’ researcher and about to start your research in another country or even another U.S. state, there are specific learning paths by location. The sections partner with and rely heavily on the FamilySearch Wiki, which for us means the information is current, relevant, and updated regularly. Of course, this doesn’t replace the FS Wiki, but it presents the information in a form that is more media-based and structurally presented, and that may appeal to more visual learners.

Another useful feature of the site is the 15-Minute Magic idea, which lays out a structure if you have limited time to work on your family history, but you want to make some steady progress. I find this to be most helpful for those still working full time or with cognitive limitations that require short bursts of focused research time. The ability to save a session, take notes, and return later is a great benefit to everyone.

And last, a really fun feature on the Family History Guide is the ‘Tip of the Day’. A short, focused thought, research hint, and a resource link to learn more that provides a ‘quick hit’ of genealogy for my day, to ponder as I have a few moments, and it often leads me in a new direction in some way. For example, today’s clue was “Hometown”, which suggested thinking about if I had examined all the local libraries for books, vertical files, and county histories. Wow, no. In fact, I’m going to make a list of all the ones I haven’t checked, and email some librarians today!

Check out this resource! Even if you’ve seen it in the past, they’ve added some great new content, and the best part – it’s free!

Read my genealogy posts here: Kyla’s Substack: Rootsquad Roundup