Genealogy-enthusiasts will oftentimes be approached by budding researchers and asked to give lessons, crash-courses, or a few tips on tracing family trees. While there’s no official guideline for research, the following brief outline can be very helpful in introducing newbies to genealogy. It goes over a few of the basic record-categories (census, immigration, and vital records) and discusses free websites to get [...]

I’ve learned a couple of basic genealogy lessons the hard way doing family history research over the years. Learn from my experience and save yourselves time and effort!
Talk to older members of your family. You may find the answers are right in front of you.
For example, my mom had a letter from her grandmother, which [...]

While doing some research yesterday someone pointed out this poem located in the preface to a U.S. Census Book. It was found in the newspaper The Portis Patriot, printed in Portis, Kansas, 20 April 1882. I got a giggle out of it and thought you might as well.
The Puzzled Census-Taker
by John G. Saxe
“Got any boys?” the [...]

I recently entered the genealogical world. Three months ago was my first time ever doing anything with genealogy work. The task can seem very large and hard. For those starting genealogy the key is to just jump in. Don’t get overwhelmed with everything. Start little by little. As you start to use all the different [...]

Let’s get excited about finding out more about our family and where we come from! I was thinking about how I, as an individual, am not just one life but a whole network of lives that come together as one. One of the things I love about family history is learning about all those lives [...]