Genealogy For Beginners Has Changed In The Last Two Years

Learning about the lives of our ancestors is a most interesting journey into history. This 1914 photo of the Boston Market could have some of your ancestors in it. It doesn't take much more than discovering something like that guy on the right being a grandfather to capture your heart. And this might explain why family history is now the most popular hobby in America.

Just what is there to learn about our ancestors anyway? Where many didn't leave us their journals, and many of their descendants failed to publish their stories, learning about what it was like when and where they lived can tell us much about their lives.

I began publishing this blog in January 2012. At the time I was serving full time in the Church Headquarters Family History Mission training new missionaries. Most of the focus of training was on basic research and the FamilySearch Family Tree.

The two most often types of feedback I receive are the updates to family tree and the column on the right about becoming a pretty good genealogist in a short time. The concept is possible, thanks to technology and the guidance of the experienced, but in the last two years these changes are causing me to rethink what I would teach new interested people to do now, versus back two years ago.

Coming to this point was accelerated in my mind by the popularity of this post of about a month ago which quickly shot up to the number 10 most read article of the about 600 I have published: "10 Tips For Genealogy Newbies" - click here to read it now.

As a result I am going to rethink and revise the popular links regarding becoming a pretty good genealogist and add 2014 to the title. The old still has value but I think the newer will be better for beginners.