Family Tree

Family Tree Magazine will help point the way toward the best research tools and practices to trace your family's history. Each issue includes tips on locating, collecting, and preserving photos, letters, diaries, church and government records, and other documentation, plus fun articles about creating scrapbooks, organizing family reunions, and vacation ideas that combine history with leisure!

Family Tree

out on a limb

TREE TALK • We asked what you’d do if you had a whole day of uninterrupted research time. Here’s how you responded.

5 QUESTIONS with:

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

FamilySearch Tops 5 Billion Historical Images

NEW Y HAPLOGROUP REPORTS

SHARED MATCH SORTING AT MYHERITAGE

Donated: Louisville News Photos

Dialing Up History

Breaking News • A newspaper article about his orphaned grandmother leads one researcher to a familiar source.

All in a Day’s Work • If all you’ve got is a Saturday to organize your genealogy, make it count with these tips for a successful one-day organization project.

14 Organization Projects You Can DO IN A DAY

YOUR ORGANIZATION DAY: Two Sample Schedules • To do your best work, you’ll need to take breaks. This article describes two different models for how to do so. Here’s what each might look like in practice during an 8-to-5 session.

Personal Records Inventory

Records Checklist

Witness Testimony • Take your research down new paths by studying the witnesses and bondsmen in the “background” of records.

WITNESSES in ACTION

HISTORY in REVERSE • Learn how to care for and scan photo negatives—and why they deserve a place in your collection.

SCANNING AND REVERSING NEGATIVES

DEVELOPING NEGATIVES

Organizing Digital Photos

ALABAMA

TIMELINE

TOOLKIT

OREGON

TIMELINE

TOOLKIT

Find Your U.S. Ancestors

Black Roots ONLINE • Tap into these 12 premier websites for finding African American ancestors.

Key Records for Black Genealogy Research

DATA ENTRY • Genealogy software programs are robust tools for building your family tree. Here’s how to best add key facts to them: names, dates and places.

treetips

Draft Records

Finding Collections with the Ancestry.com Card Catalog

Saving Heirloom Kitchenware

NOW WHAT?

2023 Genealogy Conferences

A Thorny Mystery • A distinctive cactus and puffy dress sleeves give clues to time and place.

Using mtDNA

Genealogy Source List

SOURCE CITATIONS • EDITORS OF FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE

THE GENEALOGY SOURCE CITATION PROCESS

SOURCE CITATION EXAMPLES

CITATION TIPS

Citing Sources in Genealogy Software

GLOSSARY

5 Essential Elements of a Source Citation