Extra Time on Your Hands? Dive Into Family History!

Being stuck at home might mean you have extra time on your hands. Why not use this time to dive into your family history? There are many online resources to increase our skills and help us connect with our family’s past, present, and future. Here is a roundup of some of my favorites:

Family History Fun

• FamilySearch has a whole page centered on discovery activities for the entire family. There is a potential for hours of entertainment and connecting with ancestors here. They recently introduced a new discovery activity called “Where Am I From?” This feature allows you to view your ancestors on a map to see all the places they come from. There are several mapping options included. My favorite tab is the “My Heritage” tab. It shows what countries your ancestors come from. Click on any country to learn more about the food (including recipes), families, and social customs associated with that country. What a fun way to learn more about your heritage right in your own home! Most of these discovery activities require you to be logged into your account and have a family tree. If you don’t yet have a free account, now is a great time to start one!
• The BYU Family History Technology Lab includes fun family games like Geneopardy and Wheel of Family Fortune. See what famous people you are related to with Relative Finder, or learn more about where you are from with Pedigree Pie.

Genealogy Education

There is definitely no shortage of resources for genealogy education on the internet! Here are a few of my personal favorites:

• For beginners, I recommend The Family History Guide. Here you will find step-by-step guides that will teach you the basics of FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, and FindMyPast. I can’t even begin to describe the number of resources that are available on this site, so go see for yourself! You will be amazed at what you can learn.
• RootsTech has a free video archive with sessions from 2015-2020 available. I tried to choose some of my favorites as personal recommendations for this post, but the list was way too long! Choose a topic that interests you – the presenters are always good and you will learn so much!
• Diana Elder and Nicole Dyer of Family Locket have an amazing website with hundreds of articles to help you learn more about family history. Their Research Like a Pro Podcast is my personal favorite to listen to as I’m cleaning, folding laundry, or driving. I have learned so much about the research process, record types, and more as I have listened to their weekly episodes.
• If webinars interest you, Legacy Family Tree Webinars, the BYU Family History Library, and the Family History Library in Salt Lake offer free online classes and webinars.
• If you prefer YouTube to learn more about Family History, The BYU Family History Library also posts their webinars to their YouTube Channel. Family History Fanatics also has a great YouTube channel. Their mission is to help beginning family historians get started in family history. They cover how to get started, DNA, preservation tips, scrapbooking, and more. Family History Fanatics releases videos twice a week.

Getting Organized

Perhaps now is the time you would like to tackle an organization project. Maybe you have a lot of paper files or digital photos to sort through. Here are some articles to get you started:

• Family Locket has a number of posts on organizing everything from paper files to DNA matches.
• Mary E. V. Hill has an entire site dedicated to her FamilyRoots Organizer Color-Coding System. It’s based on a popular workshop she developed on setting up a paper filing system in this day of the computer.

This is just a small sampling of what is available to help you discover more about your family’s history. The best thing about diving in? Learning more about your family history has been shown to build resilience and help you cope with stress. There’s never a better time to be engaged!