Family History and Genealogy

Who Do You Think You Are? For many, the first instinct is to jump on the computer, but if you can discipline yourself to do a little offline sleuthing beforehand, you'll ultimately go a lot further a lot faster. Investigate the clues you've prob...

Get Hooked on Your Family History We recently spoke with Megan Smolenyak, the author of the book Who Do You Think You Are?, the companion to the NBC television series by the same name. A sixth-grade family history project hooked Megan Smolenyak i...

Use this family tree form to keep genealogical information organized. ...

What's in a name? Find out by taking our trivia quiz. Learn all about the art of the alias, the history of a handle, and the making of a moniker. ...

How has the family unit changed in the past 100 years? Take our quiz and find out! ...

Genealogy Activities for Thanksgiving Giving Thanks for the Family Tree When the extended family comes together for the Thanksgiving holiday, it's the perfect opportunity to help your kids begin some genealogy research. Children love to hear abou...

Pedigree or Family Tree Charts The family tree form you begin with is a pedigree chart, an ascendant chart. On it you start with yourself and work back in time, generation by generation, filling in your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents,...

This family tree form will help you organize the genealogical information you gather as you research your family history. ...

Print a sheet of questions to ask relatives about your family history, when you're all together at Thanksgiving. ...

Print a list of questions to ask family members to aid your genealogical search. ...

Genealogy: Recording Names and Places If someone is known by more than one name, put the alternate name or names in parentheses after the surname, preceded by “a.k.a.” (also known as). As an example, John Smith (a.k.a. John Taylor). This sit...

Working hard on your genealogical search? Print out as many copies of the family tree research form you need in order to record your findings. ...

This printable genealogy worksheet will help you get started on compiling your family tree. ...

Genealogy Worksheets These worksheets are examples of forms used to organize your genealogy research. Use the research calendar and the correspondence log to keep a running summary of what you have accomplished. The research calendar shows you a...

Family Artifacts and GenealogyRemember those old trunks and boxes you saw when playing around the attic and basement as a child? When you asked, Mom said they were just “family things.” Ask Mom to go through the attic with you. Make sure you...

Government Documents and Genealogy Among the many federal-land records are the homestead records. The Homestead Act of 1862 was instrumental in settling the West. Many of our ancestors submitted papers and fulfilled the requirements to claim the...

County Records and Genealogy Within the counties are numerous records with genealogical information besides the ones we've discussed. Chances are, some of them have been filmed, although each county has many more records still in their original ...

Genealogy: Taking a DNA Test Testing is best done through individual surname projects whenever possible. Surname administrators carry databases of all tests done to date under their surname project and have many tools available to them to compar...