Finding Living Relatives and Reuniting Lost Treasures
Finding living relatives and reuniting lost family treasures is just one way genealogists do random acts of kindness. Our Gems reader has a passion for reuniting photos from eBay to living relatives, but needs to find them first. I have some tips for finding living...
Catholic Church Records in New and Updated Genealogical Collections
Findmypast announces the new catholic church records in their Catholic Heritage Archive this week. This new partnership with British and American Archdioceses will be a monumental help to those searching their early Catholic roots. Also this week, records from Italy...
TLC’s WDYTYA Offers Up Another Great Season
TLC's Who Do You Think You Are? is back with eight new one-hour episodes bringing more unexpected turns, and surprising discoveries of great historical significance. Read more to find out who you'll see and some of the hidden family secrets revealed. 7th Season of...
Genealogy Research Techniques for Finding Your Free People of Color
Not all people of color were enslaved prior to the emancipation. In fact, many were freed long before that. Researching free people of color can be quite complex. Tracing my own family line (who were free people of color) continues to be a real learning process for...
GEDmatch: A Free Tool for Your DNA Results and Genealogy
The genetic genealogy community has a crush. A big one. Everyone is talking about it. "It has such great features," says one. "It has a chromosome browser!" exclaims another. "It's FREE!" they all shout. What's all the hype about? GEDmatch. GEDmatch is a...
The Oldest Veterans on YouTube
There is a time capsule of American military veterans on YouTube, and it is remarkable. As a follow-up to our recent post, The Faces of U.S. Military Veterans through the Centuries, we now bring you a line-up of amazing videos and photographs from the War of 1812 to...
Early Emigration Records for Britain in New and Updated Genealogical Records
Emigration records, not immigration records, are the key topic of this week's new and updated genealogical collections. Findmypast offers several new collections regarding early British emigration. Also this week, record collections for Australian census substitutes...
Episode 200
The Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 200 with Lisa Louise Cooke Listen Now It's finally here - the 200th episode of the free Genealogy Gems podcast, also celebrating its 10th year. In this special episode, Lisa invites Professor Mark Auslander to share his discoveries...
mtDNA Testing for Genealogy: A Study on Ancient Ponytails
Sometimes history provides us with a situation that is just too outlandish to be false, like this one on mDNA testing for genealogy by using ancient ponytails! In these lucky, true-to-life conditions, clues to help us unravel genealogical mysteries and tell our own...
American Slave Records in New and Updated Genealogical Collections
American slave records contained in the Digital Library on American Slavery at the University of North Carolina Greensboro have recently been updated. Also in new and updated genealogical record collections this week, records from Australia, United States, and...
You May Already Have the Makings of a Family History Video
Think it’s too hard to create your own family history video? Think again! You may already have the foundation already poured! Video is one of the best ways to tell your family’s story. Imagery, text and music comes together to quickly capture the attention of all...
Famicity Kickstarter: A Private Social Network for Your Family
Join the Famicity Kickstarter Campaign and create your own family "legacy center." It's a private, social network designed for extended family members to tie their past, present, and future stories together into one! Last year at the RootsTech 2016 Innovator Showdown,...
Surname Research for Free: Guild of One-Name Studies at FamilySearch.org
Sometimes you find yourself sorting through tons of people with the same last name to see which ones belong on your family tree. This surname research collection at FamilySearch can help you see what other researchers may have spent years compiling about thousands of...
Top Tips for Finding Marriage Records in New and Updated Genealogical Collections
Finding marriage records doesn't have to be difficult. Let us share with you some top tips for locating those hard-to-find marriage records using the FamilySearch marriage record collections this week. Other new and updated record collections include Leicestershire...
A Train Ticket and Popular Novel Solved this Adoption Mystery
Genealogy for adoptees can be a difficult journey. A train ticket from 1856 and one of our most popular Genealogy Gems Book Club titles helped one woman solve an adoption family mystery. Here's her story. Adoption Mystery: Solved I recently read an article that I just...
Adoption and Genealogy: How to Create and Navigate an Adopted Family Pedigree
Adoption and genealogy often cross paths. More and more genealogists are having to navigating between both birth family and an adopted family pedigrees. Our easy, step-by-step instructions will show you how to merge these two pedigree charts into one with FamilySearch...
Missing Census or Missing Family: Legacy Tree Genealogists Answer
So, you think there might be a missing census page? Whether it's a missing census or a missing family, my special guest, professional genealogist Kate Eakman from Legacy Tree Genealogists has strategies to help you figure it out. She has just the answers you need to...
Extraordinary European Records in New and Updated Genealogical Collections
An extraordinary list of European record sets is included in this week's new and updated genealogical collections. Starting in Ireland and moving across the country, places include: United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Netherlands, and more. Ireland - Marriage Index Over...