Genealogy Prompt 12: Check Genealogy Resources at Your Local Library

Whether you aren’t sure where to start researching your family tree or you’ve hit a dead-end, there’s one reliable option you can always turn to: your local library. For this week’s genealogy prompt, take some time to explore what family history resources your local library provides. They’re generally all free, and they can come with … Read more

Genealogy Prompt 11: Take an Ancestry Tour

Sometimes visiting your ancestors’ hometowns isn’t enough to satisfy your curiosity. If you’re looking for more information than what you’ve uncovered on your own, consider taking an organized ancestry tour. What are these? Let’s explore ancestry tours and some of the options available to you. What is an Ancestry Tour? An ancestry tour is any … Read more

Genealogy Prompt 6: Set Up a Private Family Tree for Research

Browsing public family trees online can be exciting. You might suddenly come across a treasure trove of information about one of your ancestors — their parents’ names, other children, or even further generations back. But that doesn’t mean making your own working tree public is a good idea. In fact, it’s much wiser to keep … Read more

Backing Up Your Genealogy Records

This might be a quick and common sense tip for most folks who regularly work on family history research, but I was reminded of something today — you absolutely must back up your genealogy research. I learned this lesson the hard way when I was just a teenager. I started climbing my family tree when I was … Read more

Where to Start Your Free Ancestry Search

Are you new to researching your family history? If so, you’ve probably been in this situation at least once: you found a family history research site, you ran what looked like a free ancestry search, and then you were told that the site found results for your ancestors. “Awesome!” you probably thought. But wait. Then … Read more

Ancestry Offers Free Access to 1 Billion New Family History Records – Limited Time

Just a quick announcement. Ancestry is running a limited time promotion through the weekend (ending at midnight, September 1, 2014) with free access to over a billion new global records. As an added perk, you don’t need to enter a credit card to access these records during this promotion (though that’s a requirement for the standard … Read more