Genealogy Tip of the Day

Genealogists typically research those "step" ancestors to whom their biological ancestor remained married until death, but what ab...

Once research into your family's past progresses to before 1900, your ancestor's last name might not be as "fixed" as we t...

If your ancestor was a child when their parents died, one or more guardians may have been appointed. One guardian may have been for the chil...

Join me for 3 plus days of research at one of the largest genealogical libraries in the United States, the Allen County Public Library in Ft...

Don't neglect to write down the stories of your immediate family and yourself and include those as a part of your family history. Those ...

FamilySearch , Ancestry.com , and other sites create their own indexes to certain records. There may also be "older" or "orig...

Yesterday's Tip (" Flip It" ) generated quite a few comments. One was that tombstones need to be photographed or viewed from...

Do you look at the reverse side of every document used in your research? Newspaper clippings can have clues as to the date and place of the ...

There was a time when a significant social stigma was attached to being divorced. It is very possible that a relative who is listed as a wid...

Legal definitions can sometimes be difficult to pin down as they can change over time and can vary from state to state. However, usually h...

If you rely on one or two sites for your "online genealogical information" consider branching out. Searching on a limited number o...

I've been looking at the 1900-1940 US census enumeration district maps that were recently released on FamilySearch. When I located the m...

Just because a couple took out a marriage license does not mean that they actually were married. Make certain that the license was returned ...

If an ancestor is referenced as dying intestate, it means that he or she died without leaving a will that was admitted to probate. In these ...

GenealogyTip of the Day is sponsored by GenealogyBank . You can check out their latest special for Tip of the Day fans/followers/readers ...

Realize that it may never be possible to pinpoint precisely when a person was born. In some locations and time periods, there simply may not...

When reviewing affidavits and other material from a pension file, create a time line (when possible) of when each individual met the pension...

If you have records that you think are on the same person, try sorting them into categories. One for those you are certain are the right p...

What are you using as an estimate for when an ancestor was born? Is it possible that the age is off by 1 year, 5 years, 10 years?  Depending...

An excellent "brick wall buster" is to write up everything you have on your problem as if writing for someone not familiar with th...

For every ancestor, determine what wars or military actions took place when he was of an age to serve. Make certain you have accessed approp...

If you have documents that you think are on the "same" person and those documents have signatures, have you looked at them to dete...

Are you trying to get the most from those pre-1850 US census records that only list heads of household and enumerate the rest of the househo...

Sometimes what you need to help you in your research is not someone who will have to travel fifty miles to do your research, but someone who...

Today it's usually advised to have our name spelled the same way on every document, but that might not have necessarily been the case fo...

Join me for 3 plus days of research at one of the largest genealogical libraries in the United States, the Allen County Public Library in Ft...

I've had great fun researching my ancestors from New England. Published town and family histories, combined with published vital records...

Researching in a vacuum limits your potential to solve your problems. On my recent group trip to the Family History Library in Salt Lake, at...

The reason why you can't find names in indexes is that in some records the name is incomplete. This 1893 death register entry for Riley...

I'm heading home from Salt Lake from a successful group research trip where I was able even to find some items of my own that I'll b...

Is being one letter "off" your problem?  Harford and Hartford are different places. Johann and Johanna are usually differen...

One of the researchers on my Family History Library trip found a transcription of a death record for a 19-year old relative that indicated h...

Do you have your person of interest in every census taken during their lifetime? If so, make certain you've reviewed the information car...

Research conclusions published in journal articles are not necessarily true. Authors are human and make mistakes and sometimes leave out rec...

When searching any database that claims to be for an entire geographic area, determine if there are spots or areas where information is miss...