Do you have binders full of research notes?  Can you remember what records you’ve already searched and what you’ve already found?  Do you have stacks of photocopies waiting to be organized and filed?  If so, there’s a product I saw at the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy 2012 that I think you’ll like.  [...]

Do you want to create your own family tree website but don’t know how to write code?  I’ve got just the tool for you!  It’s called The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding or TNG. I’ve seen this product at other conferences, but more recently I attended Laura Prescotts’ RootsTech lecture, “Publish Your Genealogy Online.” Laura [...]

Are you wondering if your family record has already been extracted and available somewhere on the internet?  It just might be!  FamilySearch has announced that they have added 119 Million NEW FREE RECORDS!  Comprising over 64 million names, the foreign countries include China, Czech Republic, Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, etc.  There are many U.S. state [...]

I’ll admit it.  I have control issues.  I need to feel like I’m in control of my environment.   How did I get to this place?  I can “trace” my hang-ups back to the time I was ten years old and my family and I were robbed at gunpoint in our home.  The robbers beat up [...]

Once you’ve decided on a software program and you have your data in a previous program, how do you transfer your data from the old to the new?  Start a new tree in the software you plan to use for your cleaned up database.  You have two options:  1.  Export a GEDCOM file from your [...]

If your goal this year is to get organized, you’ll  probably want to start with your genealogy software.  Maybe the one you’re using isn’t working for you.  If it isn’t, you should reconsider.  It’s probably not to late to try something new.    If you haven’t put your information into a database yet, make a list of [...]

In your family history budget or list of gifts, have you eliminated society memberships as a way to cut costs?  You should reconsider.  Society memberships are some of the best deals on the planet!  You don’t live near the society to take advantage of the things they offer!  Here’s a sampling of member benefits that [...]

Do you find there are so many blogs that you have to be selective about the ones YOU read?  I do.  According to Thomas MacEntee’s Geneabloggers’ GeneaBlog Listing, the genealogy community has over 2,000 genealogy blogs. Randy Seaver recently posted a Genea-Musings blog, “NEHGS Survey on Blog Reading,” about the recent NEHGS survey concerning the [...]

The new patron to the Family History Library walks in, approaches the counter, and says something like this:  “My family is from Italy and I’m going there on vacation tomorrow, and I want to pick up a copy of my genealogy.” Or, a person approaches a professional genealogist and expects the professional to be able [...]

Marietta (Chaplin) Gleason Overbaugh spent the last years of her life in Jones County, Iowa and died there in 1879.  I went to the USGenWeb Project, selected Iowa from the state list, then chose Jones County.  I had my computer’s volume turned on and when I reached the Jones County page an old fashioned tune [...]