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Getting Into Genealogy

by Legacy Staff

Are you interested in delving into your family history and tracing your genealogy? We’ve collected the best resources to help you get started.

Are you interested in delving into your family history and tracing your genealogy?

Perhaps television shows like “Genealogy Roadshow” and “Who Do You Think You Are” have piqued your interest, or maybe you just want to find out if those family stories about Great-Granddad are really true.

We’ve collected the best resources, tutorials, and getting-started guides to help you begin your genealogical research. You might be surprised what you find out!

As you do your research, be sure to search the database of obituaries at Legacy.com. Obits often provide facts that make it easier to locate other public records: maiden names, dates and locations of birth and marriage, parents’ names, and information that you won’t find in public census records.

Genealogy: America’s Latest Obsession

Carved into the solid granite of a mountain in the Wasatch Mountain Range, located in the Little Cottonwood Canyon, 20 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah, is a place that stores information about the births, marriages, and deaths, of more than 2 billion people. 

New Project Aims to Trace the Descendants of Freed Slaves

The ‘Freedmen’s Bureau Project’ is a digital genealogy project that aims to trace the descendants of freed slaves. 

Shaking the family tree: An online genealogy how-to

Online records have made it easier than ever to trace your roots. 

Genealogy: 9 tips to focus family history research

You will find your research more productive if you clearly identify your research goals, develop a research plan and focus on their completion.

DNA Science Reveals More of Your Past

Thanks to recent advancements in DNA science, people can now discover potentially life-changing information by simply mailing off a saliva sample for testing. 

Genealogy tips: free ways to research your family history

Building your family tree can cost money, but there are free resources for those in the know.

Family History for Beginners

 Numerous articles are available on FamilySearch Wiki to help you get started in researching your family history.

How to make a family tree

Have you ever scaled a tree and sat enjoying the view? Well, get ready to climb. But this tree—and the view from it—will be the most fascinating you’ve ever seen. Your family will want to climb the tree someday too, so it’s important to carefully record your findings in a permanent place for everyone to enjoy long after you have become their ancestor.

Cyndi’s List

Cyndi’s List has been a trusted genealogy research site for more than 20 years. Cyndi’s List is free for everyone to use and it is meant to be your starting point when researching online.

Resources for Genealogists

Learn how you can use the resources at the United States National Archives to explore your family’s ancestry. 

Over 100 years of Canadian yearbook records are now online

As kids across the country enjoy their break from the books this summer, we just released a collection of more than one million historical yearbook records (featuring more than 100,000 pages), helping shed light on Canadian high school and university attendees from years past. 

Prayer, funeral cards can be helpful in genealogy search

One of the more overlooked documents in trying to find information about an ancestor is the prayer card, or funeral card. When someone dies, depending on religious or ethnic customs, a viewing at a funeral home may be held, allowing family and friends to pay their respects. At the viewing, or wake, small cards with religious imagery on one side and the deceased person’s name, date of death (and sometimes birth date or photo), and a prayer are available for mourners as a remembrance.

Organizing and Preserving a Family Photo Collection

Photographs are the treasures of any family history collection. Documents can verify kinship and share the details of everyday life, but photos allow us to see firsthand the same eyes or broad smile we inherited from our forebears. Organizing all those photos may seem overwhelming, but with a simple plan you can organize and preserve your photos for the next generation. 

What DNA Can Tell You About How You’ll Die

If you’ve ever wondered when the sci-fi-tinged future will arrive, the answer seems to be that it’s already here… or, at least, the genetic testing part of it is. 

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