5 Genealogy Activities for July: Stay Cool with Family History

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Boy holding firecrackers and an American flag, courtesy the Library of Congress

This summer, surf the waves or the World Wide Web. Beat the heat with these projects.

1. Find New Genealogy Websites

We live in a golden age of genealogy. Thousands of websites host materials useful to family historians. And (though some resources remain offline), records are digitized every day. For most genealogists, the challenge is thus not if they can find information about their ancestors online, but rather which website they should try first.

This month, take some time to discover new genealogy websites. To be sure, mega-websites like Ancestry.com and MyHeritage have much to offer. But they’re just the tip of the iceberg—more off-the-beaten-path websites can hold the answers you’re looking for.

For 25 years, Family Tree Magazine has published an annual list of the 101 Best Genealogy Websites, which includes online tools both big and small. Honorees are all best-in-class destinations for your research, offering digitized records and publications, how-to guidance, helpful tech tools, and community support. The free list is updated each summer, and sorted into categories to help you quickly find websites of interest.

2. Rerun Keyword Searches

Don’t just track down new websites, though. Even websites you’ve been using for years periodically update their algorithms or add new record collections.

From time to time, come back to your favorite website to re-try a search for that stubbornly elusive ancestor. Maybe other users have submitted corrections to faulty indexes, or the site has updated its hinting technology to be more accurate or encompass more records. Regardless, keep track of what searches you’ve tried so you don’t duplicate efforts.

The halfway point of the year is a good time to check in on what new record collections have come online. Here’s how to do that at the major websites:

Ancestry.com: From the main menu, click Search > Card Catalog. Then sort collections by Date Added.
FamilySearch: From the main menu, click Search > Records, then scroll down to Browse All Collections. Sort by “Records & Last Updated.”
Findmypast: From the main menu, click Help & More > What’s New to get to the Findmypast blog. New records are leases each Friday. (You can view all record sets here, but there’s not an option for sorting collections by date added.)
MyHeritage: From the main menu, click Research > Collection Catalog. Then sort by Last Updated.

Also see if a target record collection is available at multiple websites. Different sites have different underlying search technology, and you may find one easier to use than another. This is especially true for widely used collections such as US censuses. (More on this shortly.)

3. Study US States

If the Fourth of July has you hankering to research your US ancestors, take some time to study up on US history and how to do genealogy research in the states your ancestors lived in.

Because vital records were kept by individual states (not the federal government), their availability—and the laws for accessing them today—vary significantly by state. States were also settled at different times and by different immigrant groups.

Those variables mean researching ancestors in a different state is almost like researching them in a different country. For years, Family Tree has published a series of guides to genealogy in US states. You can find a directory of them for free here; simply click the map to be directed to your state of interest. Details include when vital records began, key moments in each state’s history, and how to access documents like censuses and land patents.

Family Tree also maintains a list of the 75 Best State Genealogy Websites. Honorees come from all 50 states (plus a handful of territories), and represent collections assembled by libraries, archive, historical societies, and universities. Holdings vary, but generally include photos, oral histories, city directories, yearbooks and representative historical letters and diaries.

4. Revisit Census Records

As we explored in No. 2, there’s value in revisiting your research from time to time. But censuses merit special consideration because of the many details they contain that can lead you to more records.

Depending on the year, censuses may provide hints to your ancestor’s:

Age and birth year
State or country of origin, including parents’ birthplaces
Date and place of immigration
Naturalization status
Education and ability to read and write
Occupation and income
Military service

You might miss some of that data if you only briefly looked at your ancestor’s entry—or if you didn’t look beyond a website’s index. Whenever you can, look at record images rather than transcriptions or indexes. You may find handwritten notes from the census-taker that add context to or change details about your ancestor’s life.

Also make sure you page back and forth to entries around your target family. Neighboring families could have been family members or friends, and might help you find your ancestor in other censuses.

5. Engage Younger Generations

When our staff ask readers how they got interested in genealogy, they inevitably have one of two responses: from building a family tree as a school project; or by learning family stories from a beloved grandparent, aunt or uncle.

With schools out for summer, you can be that relative who gives the next generation the “genealogy bug.” Involving young people in family history not only helps preserve the work you’ve done, but also help kids become more resilient.

Our contributing editor Sunny Jane Morton shares family history projects for kids of various age levels here. Some suggestions include:

Creating colorful photo books and reading them as bedtime stories
Ordering custom jigsaw puzzles of family photos or documents
Going on “field trips” to interactive living history experiences or museums
Doing rustic chores such as candle-making or butter-churning
Taking up an ancestor’s beloved hobby: knitting, crocheting, woodworking, etc.

And you know that ancestor you just wish would have written down something about your life? You’ll one day be the subject of someone’s family history research. Sharing your family history with young people today can help you prevent becoming that brick-wall relative, as can writing your own life story and curating a lean, carefully organized collection.

Last updated, June 2024