Genealogy is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members. The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives. Although generally used interchangeably, the traditional definition of "genealogy" begins with a person who is usually deceased and traces his or her descendants forward in time, whereas, "family history" begins with a person who is usually living and traces his or her ancestors. Both the National Genealogical Society in the United States and the Society of Genealogists in the United Kingdom state that the word "genealogy" often refers to the scholarly discipline of researching lineages and connecting generations, whereas "family history" often refers to biographical studies of ones family, including family narratives and traditions.
A family tree, or pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine and social work are known as genograms.
The Family History Library (FHL) is a genealogical research facility in downtown Salt Lake City. The library is open to the public free of charge and is operated by FamilySearch, the genealogical arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Melungeon is a term traditionally applied to one of numerous "tri-racial isolate" groups of the Southeastern United States. Historically, Melungeons were associated with the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia, which includes portions of East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and eastern Kentucky. Tri-racial describes populations thought to be of mixed European, African and Native American ancestry. Although there is no consensus on how many such groups exist, estimates range as high as 200.
FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization and website offering genealogical records, education, and software. It is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and is closely connected with the Family History Department of said church. It was originally established in 1894 as the Genealogical Society of Utah and is the largest genealogy organization in the world.
The Immigrant Ancestors Project, sponsored by the Center for Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University, uses emigration registers and other documents to locate information about the birthplaces of immigrants to the United States and other countries. Such information may not be found in the port registers or naturalization documents in the destination countries. Volunteers working with scholars and researchers at Brigham Young University have created a database of millions of immigrants based on these emigration registers. The Immigrant Ancestors Project focuses on emigrants from England, Ireland, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy.
The J S Battye Library is an arm of the State Library of Western Australia. It stores much of the state's historical records and original publications including books, newspapers, periodicals, maps, and ephemera, as well as oral history tapes, photographs and artworks, films and video, and non-government records which are kept in the library's Private Archives collection. The library provides a range of services, including reference, copying, and genealogical services, as well as consultancy and reader education.
The United States Census of 1930, conducted by the Census Bureau one month from April 1, 1930, determined the resident population of the United States to be 122,775,046, an increase of 13.7 percent over the 106,021,537 persons enumerated during the 1920 Census.
The Families In British India Society (FIBIS) is a genealogical organisation which assists people in researching their family history and the background against which their ancestors led their lives in British India.
Mid-Continent Public Library, officially known as Consolidated Library District #3, is a consolidated public library system serving Clay, Platte, and Jackson Counties in Missouri, with headquarters in Independence, Missouri.
Family History Centers (FHCs) are branches of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City Utah operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The centers supply resources for research and study of genealogy and family history. As of 2018, there are more than 5,100 FHCs in 140 countries.
The BYU Family History Library (FHL) is located in the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. It is the largest branch Family History Center of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is the oldest and largest genealogical society in the United States, founded in 1845.
WeRelate.org is a wiki genealogy website, that provides genealogy tools and data. It bills itself as the world's largest freely licensed genealogy wiki, with almost 5 million wiki pages. Its information is free, and the site is non-commercial and nonsectarian. WeRelate had over 2.5 million person pages, over 930,000 family pages and 44,000 images in Jan 2014.
The Compendium of American Genealogy, First Families of America (1925–1942), by Frederick Adams Virkus, is a seven volume collection of American lineage records intended as a standard genealogical history of the United States. The records span eight or nine generations from the early 17th century to the mid-20th. Originally a project of Marquis's Who's Who in America, it was later taken over by Virkus’s own Institute of American Genealogy. Virkus guided the publication of the Compendium for more than two decades with the intention of producing a genealogical encyclopedia of the “first families of America”. It is a major source of information on immigrants to America before 1750. According to Tyler's Quarterly “practically every name distinguished in the early history of the country will be found within its pages”.
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain (JGSGB) is a society for the study and encouragement of Jewish genealogy in Great Britain. The society is a member society of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.
Findmypast is a UK-based online genealogy service owned, since 2007, by British company DC Thomson. The website hosts over 4 billion searchable records of census, directory and historical record information. It originated in 1965 when a group of genealogists formed a group named "Title Research". The first internet website went live in 2003.
GenealogyBank.com is an online subscription genealogical service that offers resources to help users trace their family history. GenealogyBank is one of the largest collections of digitized U.S. newspapers from all 50 states, dating back to 1690. In addition to digital newspaper archives, GenealogyBank also offers other online genealogy resources including the Social Security Death Index, obituaries, government publications, and historical books. With 2+ billion online records GenealogyBank helps users discover fascinating information about their family history beyond names and dates of their ancestors
The Family History Research Wiki provides handbook reference information, and educational articles to help genealogists find and interpret records of their ancestors. It is a free-access, free-content, online encyclopedia on a wiki, hosted as part of the FamilySearch site. It is sponsored by FamilySearch, a non-profit organization, and a genealogical arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Anyone with access to the Internet may read any of the over 91,000 articles, and almost all articles can be edited by registered users (contributors). Registration is free.
Roger P. Minert is a professor of family history at Brigham Young University (BYU) and a professional genealogist with accreditation from the Salt Lake Family History Library. He has a background in German language study, and has published reference books for genealogy work on German immigrants, guides on performing German genealogy research, and books about the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany. He frequently presents on German family history topics at genealogy conferences.