You might think that taking the time to build a plan for your genealogy research takes the fun out of it. And many years ago, I would have been inclined to agree with you. But honestly, wandering around aimlessly and coming across the same records over and over again really isn't fun after awhile, is it?

We get to this point in our research where we keep circling the same records and databases hoping that something will magically appear. After awhile, we get bored and/or frustrated and simply...

One of my 2022 genealogy goals is to start getting my digital photos into FOREVER Storage. The plan was to spend 30-60 minutes each week working on this goal. Initially, I had to figure out my workflow, which took a little bit of time to work through. But I finally have it figured out and have been spending time each week bringing photos into FOREVER Historian for tagging, editing, and organizing, and then I send them to FOREVER Storage.

What is FOREVER Storage?

FOREVER Storage is a...

Did you know that I transcribe every genealogy record I find? This may seem like overkill, but it has made a world of difference in my genealogy research. Why? Because it forces me to slow down and actually read every word a record has to offer, and that alone, is what leads to the answers I seek (or at least clues that put me on the right path to the answer). Plus, I get a readable digital copy that I can annotate with notes, questions, observations, and hypotheses.

Here are my top four tips...

So what’s new with AncestryDNA? Well first, there’s been another ethnicity estimate update. Mine have changed drastically. The only constant is my Germanic Europe region, which went from 32% to 34%. The others have jumped quite a bit in one direction or the other, a new region has been added, and Spain (which popped up for the first time in the last update) is now gone.

But what’s really cool is that with AncestryDNA’s new SideView tool, you can see your ethnicity...

I remember seeing a lot of people comment during the lead up to the 1950 US census release that they didn’t understand the hype and really didn’t care to look for people because they “knew” them. I have continued to see this in the week following the release, and I have to say that I strongly disagree with this notion, and I’ve got three reasons why that I’ll share in this article.

1. It’s a Record

As part of the Genealogical Proof Standard, we are...