Search Results for: blog learn from other genealogists

Five Free Genealogy Websites for Frugal Genealogists

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Genealogy research will require you to invest a lot of time. This doesn’t always mean that you have to invest a lot of money in order to work on your family tree! There are several genealogy websites that you can use for free. Here are five free genealogy websites that a frugal genealogist will want to check out. FamilySearch is one of the most popular genealogy websites. This is a non-profit website that is run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. All genealogists are welcome to use the resources on FamilySearch no matter what their personal religious … Continue reading →

What’s Your Mother’s Maiden Name?

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If you are going to track down information about your ancestor, it helps to know his or her surname. Genealogists know that it can be difficult to track down female ancestors who have changed their maiden name. The Southern Genealogist’s Exchange Society, Inc., is holding a Virtual Tea Party on Mother’s Day this year. You can add your mother’s name to their list. When I got married, I changed my surname from my maiden name to my husband’s last name. My sister recently got married, and she decided to keep her maiden name. Today, either choice is going to be … Continue reading →

Use Your Genealogy Research to Help Others

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The genealogy research that you do is important! You might be creating the only record of your family tree that has ever existed. In addition to learning more about your own family, you can use your genealogy related skills to help out others. Here are a few suggestions about how to do that. There used to be a website called Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, (or RAOGK). It was run by a woman named Bridgett Schneider. The website started in 1999 and ended in 2011 when Bridgett, who was 64 years old, passed away. The original website for RAOGK is … Continue reading →

An Easy Way to Start Your Genealogy Blog

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Genealogy and technology are two things that are becoming increasingly interconnected. However, not all genealogists are going to be tech savvy enough to know how to get their very own genealogy blog started. MyFamily.com provides an easy way for genealogists to get their own genealogy blog online. I think that most genealogists are using the internet in order to do their research. Websites like Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, and the National Archives have become extremely popular. It is fairly easy to get started using sites like those to get some genealogy research done, and to add to your family tree. Problems begin … Continue reading →

Keeping Up With The Joneses And Others With Common Surnames

If one of the biggest challenges in your genealogy research is keeping up with the Joneses in your family tree, do not despair. Common surnames do make research challenging because it can be hard to sift through all of the potential matches for an ancestor and determine with any degree of certainty whether you have found the correct person. There are ways that genealogists with Joneses, Smiths, and other very popular surnames in their family trees have been able to locate their ancestors amongst the crowds. Here are some tips for researching ancestors with common surnames. One way to help … Continue reading →

Three Great Books for Beginning Genealogists

If you are thinking about getting started with genealogy, there are a lot of books out there that are written with you in mind. Of course, some are better than others. Now might be a good time to think about reading a genealogy book or two so that you can begin your family history adventure feeling well informed. Here are a few that you may want to look at to see whether their style and contents appeal to you. We all know that you are not an idiot, but you have got to admit – those “Complete Idiot’s Guide” books … Continue reading →

Death Index Helps Genealogists – And Enables Fraud

The Social Security Death Index is a great resource for genealogists. It can be used to validate the research that a genealogist has already completed. Unfortunately, there are thieves who are using this same database to commit tax fraud and identify theft. The Death Master File is a database that was created in 1980. It contains the names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers of more than 90 million deceased Americans. It became accessible under the Freedom of Information Act because businesses in the United States wanted to use it as a tool against identity theft. The Social Security Death … Continue reading →

JewishGen Helps Genealogists of Jewish Heritage

Do you have relatives or ancestors that are Jewish? You may want to check out JewishGen. It is a genealogy website that has been designed for people who have Jewish ancestry to research their roots, learn more about their family history, and even connect with living relatives. JewishGen is a non-profit organization that is affiliated with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. The JewishGen website started out as a bulletin board in 1987, with only 150 users. The website is still primarily run by volunteers from all over the world. The mission of JewishGen … Continue reading →

J. K. Rowling Learns About Her Family Tree

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The author J.K. Rowling was recently in the news for something not related to Harry Potter. She was on the UK version of a popular genealogy related television program. During the episode that she was featured in, she discovered many things about her ancestors that she was unaware of. What she learned stirred up many emotions for the famous author. Discovering things that you did not know about your ancestors is exciting to genealogists and non-genealogists alike. People also enjoy experiencing this vicariously through one of the many genealogy related television programs. This is part of why shows like “Who … Continue reading →

Tracing Your Hungarian Roots With Help From ProGenealogists

You may know that ProGenealogists is the official genealogy research firm associated with genealogy giant Ancestry.com. What you may not know is that ProGenealogists has some great, free information for genealogy researchers available on its web site. For example, if you have Hungarian ancestry there is a page with quite a bit of useful information about tracing your Hungarian roots. Although I do not have any Hungarian ancestors, I decided to take a look at the Hungarian genealogy resources offered by ProGenealogists because it is similar to the offerings that they have made available for other nations. I found a … Continue reading →