Genealogy Q&A: Tracing a Sailor from New England Premium
Protection certificates may be your key to researching your New England seaman ancestor.
Read More
Time Capsule: A Hopeless Place Premium
Read a brief first-hand account of a prison for females in the 1800s.
Read More
Document Detective: Voter Registration Premium
Voter registration records can be a surprisingly helpful resource for genealogy. Here are six things you can learn about your ancestor from these records.
Read More
It’s Academic Premium
Give your research methodology a makeover by utilizing an overlooked and underused resource: college and university libraries.
Read More
Using Published Family Histories for Your Genealogy Research Premium
Published family histories can save or sink your research. Follow our advice for finding these potential genealogy treasure troves and mining the good information while weeding out the bad.
Read More
What Are Fraternal Benefit Orders? Premium
Records from fraternal benefit orders (FBOs) are another resource to add to your genealogy arsenal.
Read MoreSign up for the Family Tree Newsletter
Plus, you'll receive our 10 Essential Genealogy Research Forms PDF as a special thank you!
Get Your Free Genealogy Forms
"*" indicates required fields
How to Trace Your Ancestors in Voter Records
Voter records are often overlooked resources for genealogy. We'll go over how to begin your search for your ancestor's voter records, as well as how to research in various states and counties.
Read More
Now What? Accuracy of Social Security Applications Premium
Were the data on Social Security card applications verified? Expert answers for your genealogical questions.
Read More
Now What? Online: Researching Ancestors Who Were Freemasons
Here's how to track down records of ancestors who were part of the fraternal organization of Free and Accepted Masons.
Read More
Toolkit Quick Hits: Family and Local History Books Premium
Before you trek to a library to find A Commemorative History of Antelope County, Nebraska or Descendants of Floyd Floosickle, 1750-1920, try tapping these online collections of digitized local and family history books—you can search thousands of tomes simultaneously and even save copies to your computer. Be sure to take advantage of the advanced search features noted below, such as wildcards to find spelling variations of names (Rob?son finds Robison and Robeson; Rob*son finds Robison, Robeson, Robinson and Robertson) and exact-phrase searching to find a full name (enclose it in quotation marks). But don’t rely entirely on the search engine; browse the tables of contents and indexes of promising books, too. To locate other online histories, check USGenWeb’s county pages, the Online Books Page and the Internet Archive.
Read More