Genealogy Tip of the Day

Fill out as much of your research log as you can while you are preparing to do you research. Doing this will help you to prepare and a parti...

As a special to the readers of Genealogy Tip of the Day (website and newsletter), I am offering a special discount on my May 2010 research t...

If you can't find your relative in a database, consider switching the first and last names. These kinds of errors are not all that unusu...

Every May I take a group to Salt Lake City's Family History Library on a week-long research trip. We research, learn, and have a little ...

One question: Is all your data backed up? or "Have you backed up all your data?" for those of you who don't like to end things...

Is your ancestor listed in a record with his (or her) middle name listed as his last name?

In an upcoming column for Casefile Clues , one of the key methods to locating certain people was to trace the stepchildren of their father. ...

Is there anyway that information you are trying to analyze can be put into chart format? Think about how you could make headings and what it...

I may be a little bit too picky, but when reviewing a GEDCOM file if I see names of places spelled incorrectly (especially names of counties...

Occasionally when I search on Google for an ancestor's name one of my hits is the search results page for that name on www.familysearch....

Normally an ancestor has to be dead to have an estate settlement, has to be born to have a birth certificate, etc. Think about what really H...

If the name as written on a document sounds like the name you are looking for, consider it the same name. Your real work is to make certain ...

For the longest time, there have been html tags surrounding posts made to Tip of the Day. Hopefully I have removed them. I guess I'll kn...

If there is a word in a document that you do not know the meaning of, look it up. And even if you think you know what the word means, you st...

The website with land patents from the Bureau of Land Management site is wonderful, but there are a few suggestions and warnings: the site i...

What you find in someone's online genealogy compilation should be used as a clue. There's one tree on Ancestry.com (with over 20,000...

Have you really learned about the records in that "new" area in which you are researching? Don't assume that records in one lo...

Is it possible that the answer is staring you right in the face? Sometimes re-analyzing a document will bring the "obvious" out of...

Remember that if the civil record of a marriage indicates your ancestor was married by a minister, there may be a church record of the marri...

In older documents, many times a double "s" would be written in a way that looked like a "p" or perhaps and "f...

Starting today, we are offering back issues of Casefile Clues in sets. First set will be issues 1-10 and we will continue in that fashion so...

If you need nice, fairly recent maps of Kansas counties with the civil and congressional townships shown (including sections), consider usin...

If any tip of the day readers would like a copy of my weekly how-to newsletter, Casefile Clues, please send an email to samples@casefileclue...

Remember when performing a land patent search on the BLM Site ( http://www.glorecords.blm.gov ) that the county names might have changed be...

When transcribing data, you want to remain as true to the original as possible. However, when anlyaing data, some creavitity may come in han...

I was looking for information on a lady I thought was a sister of my ancestor. I requested her obituary, hoping it would provide information...

When working on my brick wall ancestor, I searched probate records. I actually never searched them at all for him because I was always told ...

When searching http://books.google.com try a search for your ancestor and the county where he lived. A search for John Rucker Orange Virgin...

A cousin graciously shared with me a copy of a casefile a relative had shared with her. I was very glad to get it. The relative of the cousi...

Tip of the Day Readers who want a sample copy of my newsletter "Casefile Clues" can do so by sending me an email at mjnrootdig@gma...

I recently wrote about my brick wall ancestor, Ira Sargent, in a recent column for Casefile Clues . One of the records mentioned was his 19...

Is there something you cannot read on a document? Instead of trying to transcribe it and post your transcription to a mailing list, consider...

Ok, so it's not just a genealogy tip. Our laptop is on the fritz and my daughter wanted to use the desktop. I was forced to read some ho...

I realize it would never happen to any "Tip of the Day" readers, but could you possibly have made a mistake at some point in your ...

Think about that marriage record for your great-grandparents that gives the names of their parents. Think about that 1900 census form that p...