Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2025 i Family Tree

“You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months,” wrote Dwight Eisenhower on the eve of the D-Day invasion in 1944. “The eyes of the world are upon you.” The brave men who stormed the beaches of Normandy that day were members of the “Greatest Generation.” Today, we remember them as our parents and grandparents—those who endured much in the tumultuous early 20th century. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. To commemorate it, this issue includes a guide to researching WWII service, especially difficult as many original records were destroyed by fire (and many first-hand witnesses to the war have passed on). You can read our advice beginning on page 14, and a guide to…

Family Tree Magazine was proud to participate in RootsTech 2025, which took place March 6–8 in Salt Lake City. There, we met with thousands of readers, handed out free copies of our latest issue, and heard from leading experts in the field. Read some of our takeaways on page 8. This year, two of our editors also took to the podium to share genealogy advice with attendees. One of the lectures was an online-exclusive, which you can watch for free at <www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/sea-to-shining-sea-how-to-research-in-every-u-s-state>.…

Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan (above) was dismissed from her role as head of the National Archives in February. Shortly after, her deputy, William J. Bosanko, resigned under pressure from the Trump administration. Since then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has served as acting Archivist. The move comes amid several changes at federal agencies this year. President Donald Trump has criticized NARA for its role in a 2022 probe that investigated his handling of classified White House documents between presidential terms. He vowed to replace Shogan after his 2024 election, though Shogan was not in office at the time of the documents probe. Since 1934, only 11 people have permanently served as Archivist of the United States. Though appointed by the executive branch, the position has largely…

It’s not often that a new website feature has the potential to fundamentally change how we do family history. But FamilySearch’s full-text image search, announced at RootsTech 2024, could represent such a sea-change in making records available to genealogists. Full-text search <www.familysearch.org/en/search/full-text>, lauded by FamilySearch as “a new era in search technology,” uses artificial intelligence to make unindexed record images available to search for the first time. This allows genealogists almost instant access to valuable records that once would have taken hours to page through. Read on for our tutorial of Family Search’s full-search text. Since 1894, FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org> has sent crews around the world to digitize documents that are of use to family historians. This massive collection includes some 5.3 billion images (and counting), which are being digitized and added…

1 Kathy Kass has struggled to learn more about her ancestor Rodman Odell. She can’t find him in several censuses, and he has conflicting birthyear information. An unidentified photo of six men might hold a clue. 2 Bowler hats (also known as derbies) varied from the 1890s into the 20th century, from their size and shape of the brim to the height of their crown. The Hat Historian covered them in a YouTube video <www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZKMyyAP7ng>. Maureen A. Taylor is the author of Family Photo Detective (Family Tree Books). 3 Collars and lapels can help date an image as well. The man on the far left wears a suit with small lapels, circa 1903. The others wear suits with long, narrow lapels from later in the decade. That suggest a wide date…

Q Can AncestryDNA’s Pro Tools help me with my DNA? A Probably—that’s the short answer. Though Pro Tools<support.ancestry.com/s/article/Ancestry-Pro-Tools-Membership> will add $10 to your monthly Ancestry.com payment, it’s quickly become a must-have for serious genetic genealogists. Pro Tools offers many enticements for your DNA research, with more regularly coming online. I want to highlight three: TREE MAPPER The Tree Mapper feature <support.ancestry.com/s/article/Map-View-in-Ancestry-Pro-Tools> is basically a map view of your family tree. You can use filters to limit what you see to a specific set of ancestors, like your paternal line, or directline ancestors only. Key to this is that the tool displays not just birthplace, but also the locations of all significant life events, including residence. For a detailed guide to Ancestry’s Pro Tools, see <www.familytreemagazine.com/websites/ancestry-help/how-to-master-ancestry-pro-tools-to-improve-your-family-tree>. This matters when you are…

Access the record search under Research > Search All Records (if you’re logged in to your account), or go to <www.myheritage.com/research>. The basic search form lets you search for records matching given and last names, year of birth, and a place. Options next to Add Details allow you to include the name of a parent or spouse, or other data such as life events or keywords. You can leave any field blank—even the name fields. Using the default settings, along with flexible date-matching and optional place-matching, you can search on multiple criteria. The best matches will appear first. From the Research drop-down, you can limit your search to a specific collection (Census & Voter Lists, Newspapers and so on). These dedicated search pages have customized fields. For example, you can…

IN DECEMBER 2016, the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor renewed interest in stories of WWII veterans, including those who died in the conflict. At the time, WWII buff Don Milne was struck that homages to the fallen rarely included many personal details. He got a membership to Ancestry.com and was drawn to military records. Before long, he realized the records there had plenty of information about fallen heroes. Milne made a pastime of researching American WWII dead, then publishing a story about a casualty every day on the 100th anniversary of his or her birthdate. Called “Stories Behind the Stars” <www.storiesbehindthestars.org>, the project in just a few weeks had thousands of readers and a burgeoning Facebook page of followers <www.facebook.com/storiesbehindthestars.org>. “It never gets old to find another…

Fold3 <www.fold3.com/collection/world-war-ii-united-states> enjoys a partnership with the National Archives, making it a key destination for those researching WWII service. Here are some highlights for each branch of the military. Note that some of these also appear on sister site Ancestry.com. GENERAL • Rosters of dead • Copies of the Stars and Stripes newspaper • Yearbooks from units and training camps • Draft registration cards • Medal of Honor recipients • Listings of POW/MIA unaccountedfor remains • Records of servicemen buried abroad from the American Battle Monuments Commission • Department of Veterans Affairs death file index • Unit histories • Cadet Nurse Corps card files ARMY (including Army Air Forces) • Hospital admission cards • Administrative records from the European Theater • Registers of Army officers and Air Forces squadrons •…

One of the biggest challenges genealogists face is translating foreign-language records, especially if the handwriting is hard to read. Fortunately, many online tools can help you decipher even cryptic texts. Whether you need to decipher a letter written in Norwegian, a German church record written in Gothic script or a newspaper article published in Spanish, use this guide to find the right tools for the job. WORD LISTS, HANDWRITING GUIDES AND DICTIONARIES These resources, like their low-tech predecessors, collect foreign-language genealogical terms, their English equivalents, and (sometimes) definitions. The FamilySearch Research Wiki (see below) has more than 100,000 expertly written articles with genealogy advice from around the world. Among the articles are language and handwriting guides, including word lists <www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Genealogical_Word_Lists>. A search for German letter turns up a German letter-writing…

Gazetteers are both as old as the ancient world and as new as the needs of present-day family historians. These geographical dictionaries are directories of place names and other details about those places. They’re just one way that genealogists can bring together the world of past generations to make them accessible today—to find homesteads, landmarks and boundaries in the modern world. Gazetteers come in many shapes and sizes. We’ll look at what most of them have in common, as well as why they were created, what you can expect to find in them, and how to locate and use them in your research. GAZETTEER COVERAGE Gazetteers, like many “genealogical” records, were not created with family historians in mind. Indeed, many instead had a commercial purpose. They were published at different…

Known for its global membership, MyHeritage is available in 42 languages. 6 Tips for Using MyHeritage 1 AUTOMATICALLY GET ANCESTOR MATCHES. If you use MyHeritage’s Family Tree Builder software on your computer or you have a MyHeritage online family tree, the site works in the background to find information about your ancestors on MyHeritage. Icons next to names in your tree indicate two types of matches: • Smart Match: A green icon means MyHeritage has found a matching person in a user’s family tree. • Record Match: A brown icon means MyHeritage has found matches in historical records on the site. To access most of those records, you need a MyHeritage Data Subscription or higher. RootsMagic <www.rootsmagic.com> and Family Historian <www.family-historian.co.uk> software also offer Smart Matches and Record Matches. 2 SEARCH…

Censuses and Population Registers • US censuses: 1790–1880, 1900–1950 • Canadian censuses: 1851–1931 • English and Welsh censuses: 1841–1911, 1939 Register • Irish censuses: 1901–1911 • Scottish censuses: 1841–1901 • French censuses: 1872, 1906, 1911–1931 • Swedish household examination books: 1800–1947 • Dutch population registers: 1810–1936 Vital and Church Records • English and Welsh civil registration indexes: 1837–2005 • Church baptism, marriage and death indexes: England, Germany, Mexico and elsewhere • Finnish church and census records: 1657–1915 Published Sources • Family trees: MyHeritage (6.3 billion profiles), FamilySearch Family Tree (1.2 billion profiles), Geni World (362 million profiles) and others • Newspapers: various publications from the US, Canada, France and Australia, plus indexes from papers at OldNews • Publications: family and local histories, city and county directories, high school and college…

1 Maintain a family tree of up to 250 people. You can share a link to your tree with others—even people who don’t use MyHeritage. 2 Search the U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) <www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10002/us-social-security-death-index-ssdi>. This index lists deaths in the United States, mostly occurring after 1962, that were reported to the Social Security Administration. 3 Search BillionGraves <www.myheritage.com/research/collection-10147/billiongraves>, a data base of cemetery inscriptions and photos along with GPS location data. 4 Review Smart Matches—that is, record hints. You’ll need a subscription to view records behind MyHeritage’s paywall, but the list will give you an idea of what information the site holds for your ancestors. 5 Search other free records. Look through the Catalog <www.myheritage.com/research/catalog>; collections that are free to search will have a grey FREE tag on its description page.…

<www.familytreemagazine.com/libraries-archives/navigating-the-rootstech-on-demand-library> The annual RootsTech genealogy conference has so much to offer—even if you couldn’t attend this year’s in-person event in Salt Lake City. Updated each March, the On-Demand Library <www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/search> boasts more than 1,500 free lectures on genealogical topics from past RootsTech events. Some date to 2019, and topics range from DNA to getting started to research in specific countries. Log in with your FamilySearch account to get started. Keyword-search or use the filters at left to find sessions of interest. Create your own playlists for later viewing.…

EACH SPRING, MANY GENEALOGY COMPANIES release new features and record collections to coincide with the annual RootsTech conference <www.familysearch.org/rootstech>. This year was certainly no exception. RootsTech host FamilySearch provided updates about some in-beta Experiments announced in 2024. Full-text search (see page 22) was a major highlight last year, and other now-live tools include a data-integrity score that evaluates the reliability of information in the FamilySearch Family Tree and Group Trees that allow users to collaborate on profiles of still-living people. The organization also launched a new FamilySearch Catalog <www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/session/the-new-familysearch-catalog>. See our July/August 2025 issue for a tutorial. MyHeritage released a long-anticipated revision to its ethnicity estimates. Called Ethnicity Estimate v2.5, the update adds more than 35 possible groups to users’ DNA results. Another upgrade is Ancient Origins, which reports on…

Many people dream of visiting their ancestral homeland. But moving back there? Not so many. But that’s what Caroline Topperman did when she and her husband moved from Canada to Warsaw, Poland, in 2013. A previous trip to Poland (where Topperman’s husband and parents were born) opened her eyes. “We were living in Vancouver, where everything is about sports and looking beautiful,” she says. “We fell in love with the ‘electricity’ in Warsaw: the restaurants, popup shops, arts and creative scene.” The move took about 18 months. Topperman had to prove her family was from the country; since her husband was born there, it took less time to receive his documentation. The couple had to sell almost everything they owned, but migrating didn’t faze Topperman. Born in Sweden, she spent…

25th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL For 58 years, my mother’s side of the family has gathered each July for a reunion. It started with a simple picnic on a chilly and rainy July 4th. Three of my mother’s siblings—Gerry and John and their families, along with younger sister, Margie—packed a picnic basket and headed to South Park, just outside of Pittsburgh. What began as a spontaneous get-together soon expanded into an annual tradition. All seven of my mother’s siblings and their families soon joined to honor their parents, John and Veronica Figlar. In 1979, we began using the acronym ALAFFFA, representing the siblings’ various surnames: Abbott, Lizanov, Alzo, Figlar, Figlar, Figlar and Augenstein. My Uncle John, a talented commercial artist, even created a special logo. The annual reunion has endured as a…

LOOK FOR MAPS of your ancestor’s town or region. In addition to helping you understand the layout of the place your ancestor called home, maps can contain information about demographics, geography and administrative jurisdictions that are crucial for finding records. See page 68 for more on how administrative history can be important. And this issue’s Source Spotlight (page 60) covers gazetteers—dictionary-like directories of place names that are useful supplements to historical maps. Learn more about what maps can teach you at <www.familytreemagazine.com/records/maps/most-useful-historical-maps>.…

1 There’s lots to do on the home page, but let’s start with the obvious: searching for memorial pages. More Search Options gives you several additional fields: keywords from a biographical sketch, checkboxes for similar name spellings, names of first-degree relatives, and more. When searching maiden names, enter the name in the Last Name box and check the relevant box under Include. Check out the Search Tips for info on using wildcard characters. 2 Click a result to see the memorial page, which might be basic (just a name, set of dates transcribed from a tombstone, and maybe a photo). Others may have useradded photos of the person, document images, biographies, obituaries, or a link to the burial place on Google Maps <maps.google.com>. If a memorial doesn’t have a tombstone photo,…

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS AT A GLANCE To register, go to <www.myheritage.com> and start a free trial or order a DNA test. You can do a lot with a free Basic MyHeritage membership, but a paid subscription lets you take advantage of the most-helpful search technologies, DNA-analysis tools and historical records <www.myheritage.com/pricing>. *MyHeritage offers a discount for first-time subscribers. 3 WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR FAMILY TREE You can maintain your family tree on MyHeritage.com, use free genealogy software on your computer, keep your tree on a mobile device—or all three. Whichever combination you choose, you can synchronize your online and offline family trees so they’re always up-to-date. • Online tree: If you’re new to genealogy and MyHeritage, start by creating a simple family tree. MyHeritage will prompt you to enter information about…

REVIEWING A DNA MATCH 1 Your match’s name, age and DNA account manager, if it’s someone else. (This information has been redacted in the image above for privacy reasons.) Click Contact to send a message—it’s free, even if you uploaded your DNA data from another service or don’t have a paid MyHeritage subscription. 2 The estimated relationship is based on the amount of shared DNA, and generally given in simpler terms than other testing services. Click on the estimate to see other possible ways you and your DNA match might be related. 3 DNA Match quality shows three values that indicate your genetic relationship: shared DNA, shared segments and the length of the largest segment. Click the question mark to learn more about each. 4 Clickto see your match’s family…