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1 month ago | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
Seasoned genealogists know that blood relatives shouldn’t be the only people you research. “Cluster” research encourages you to study the people in a person’s community—their friends, neighbors, coworkers, and fellow countrymen—not just their immediate family members. Recording non-relatives in family trees is not always straightforward, however. Here is how you can document non-family members in popular family tree-building programs.
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Aug 30, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
Learn more about (and from!) your family this month. These five suggestions will get you started. Kids across the United States have started a new school year. Do the same by spending some time honing your skills: learning a new language, finding and interpreting a new kind of record, or using a new-to-you genealogy website or tool. The learning possibilities are endless.
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Jul 29, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
You might not know where—or when—your next “semester” of genealogy will take you. But these five projects will get you ready. Students around the country go back to school this month, and stores are stockpiling notebooks, colored pencils, and graphing calculators. You’re probably past school age (we won’t ask by how much!), but you can still take advantage of deals on office supplies at local stores.
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Jun 20, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
This summer, surf the waves or the World Wide Web. Beat the heat with these projects. We live in a golden age of genealogy. Thousands of websites host materials useful to family historians. And (though some resources remain offline), records are digitized every day. For most genealogists, the challenge is thus not if they can find information about their ancestors online, but rather which website they should try first. This month, take some time to discover new genealogy websites.
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May 29, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
Famous for his world-building, author J.R.R. Tolkien created detailed genealogies for many of the epic’s major characters. Indeed, many versions of The Lord of the Rings include an appendix dedicated just to family trees. Below are some highlights, simplified to include just major characters in the story. Hobbiton and its neighboring villages are home to several prominent hobbit families, notably the Baggins, Bolgers, Brandybucks and Tooks.
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May 24, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
Take your genealogy research outside! Enjoy the warm summer weather with these projects that are perfect for the backyard, porch or park. As adults, we don’t usually get to participate in organized summer reading programs. But you can still kick back with a long-anticipated book at a pool, beach, or local cemetery (see No. 2). Just don’t get sunscreen on its pages!We’ve got a running list of must-read genealogy books by subject.
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Apr 25, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
Throw open the windows—warm temperatures are here to stay! Breathe some fresh air into your house and your research with these projects that will keep you busy all month long. Family historians study the whole family—people, but also the places and objects important to them. House histories collect information about the places your ancestors called home: when the house was built, what it was made of, who lived there (and when), what landmarks were nearby, and maybe even how it was decorated.
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Mar 29, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
Schedule time with family and prepare for the summer months ahead! These five projects will help you connect with relatives and safeguard your research. When was the last time you saw your extended family? The summer months are a classic time for families to come together to celebrate significant anniversaries or get some face-to-face time. Start planning reunions/outings this month,before summer calendars fill up. Survey family members for a weekend that works for most of them.
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
It’s not often that a new website feature has the potential to fundamentally change how we do family history. But FamilySearch’s full-text image search, announced at RootsTech 2024, could represent such a sea-change in making records available to genealogists. Full-text search, lauded by FamilySearch as “a new era in search technology,” uses artificial intelligence to make unindexed record images available to search for the first time.
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Feb 9, 2024 | 
familytreemagazine.com | Andrew Koch
Spring is here! It’s time to dust off your furniture and your genealogy skills. These five suggestions will help you grow your family tree, keep up with the latest genealogy tech and news, and celebrate your heritage. Many see spring as a time to refresh and renew their spaces by taking care of cleaning tasks they normally wouldn’t have time for. And there’s no shortage of spring-cleaning advice online, from Martha Stewart and Better Homes & Gardens to the Food Network.
