Family History How to Write a Family History Story Your Family Will Actually Want to Read Names, dates, and pedigree charts preserve facts. Stories preserve people. Here is a simple way to turn the names and dates you have already gathered into narratives your children, grandchildren, and cousins will want to read, remember, and pass … Read more
Family History How to Preserve and Digitize Family Photos When my grandmother passed away, we found eleven shoeboxes of photographs in her closet — and nobody under sixty could name half the faces in them. Rescuing those photos taught me that digitizing a family collection is less about scanners and more about timing: the people … Read more
Family History How to Interview Living Relatives About Family Stories I have a nineteen-second voice memo of my grandfather laughing, and it is worth more to me than every document I’ve ever found on FamilySearch. Getting it took one phone call and a little nerve. Here’s how to sit down with your oldest relatives, ask … Read more
Family History How to Start Indexing on FamilySearch Indexing is the most flexible service opportunity I’ve found in the Church — no schedule, no calling, no committee, and a batch of old census records fits neatly between breakfast and the kids waking up. Here’s what it actually is, why it matters more than it feels … Read more
Family History Family History for Beginners: Getting Started with FamilySearch I put off family history for years because I assumed everything had already been done. One evening on FamilySearch proved that wrong — and the first week taught me almost everything a beginner actually needs to know. Here’s that week, step by step. Updated August … Read more