Have you enjoyed a unified effort in which you accomplished so much more with the help of others than you could ever have done alone? The cooperation, connection, and associations that result from such unified effort also established a protection to the results that were unexpected. Join Karen Clifford as she shares a ten-year experiment using the Collaborate tool at FamilySearch to shine a light on selected ancestors, and help to attract unknown, yet later proven relatives to our common family tree. See how the partnership between FamilySearch, and MyHeritage opened the previously closed door to a new generation.

Discover how artificial intelligence can revolutionise your approach to family history in this engaging webinar. We’ll explore ten practical applications of AI, from streamlining research and automating transcription tasks to enhancing the way you share stories and findings. This session will demonstrate how AI can save time, increase accuracy, and open up new possibilities in genealogical research. Whether you’re just beginning to explore AI or looking to enhance your current practices, this webinar will provide you with practical examples to integrate AI into your family history projects.

More and more, people are preferring to use their mobile devices to access their favorite software and services — and genealogists shouldn’t be left behind. MyHeritage continues to improve the genealogy-on-the-go experience from the MyHeritage mobile app, making it easier than ever to manage your family tree and conduct research from the palm of your hand. In this session, Gilad Katz, Senior Product Manager at MyHeritage, will show you the latest developments in the mobile app.

This lecture details the resources available for researching your New England ancestors who arrived during the Great Migration from England from 1620-1640. Discussion of the scholarship and resources both published and online created by the Great Migration Study Project will be covered.

Divorce in Queensland Australia was very difficult to obtain. Some couples then just lived together and some underwent a bigamous marriage. What were the penalties? The records? Follow these ten bigamy case studies.

Discover how DNA testing can transform your family history research! This foundational lecture introduces the core principles of genetic genealogy, explaining the types of DNA tests available (autosomal, Y-DNA, and mitochondrial), what they can reveal, and how they complement traditional genealogical methods. Learn how genetic insights can connect you to your ancestors and provide new avenues to explore your family’s story.

Many states now have so-called Memory or Digital Archives platforms, which contain a ton of material relevant to genealogists, whether original documents, historical context, images, and more often covering from the state’s founding to now. Examples include Indiana Memory, Portal to Texas History, North Carolina Digital Collections, Virginia Memory, etc.

Those who we today call LGBTQ+ have been around throughout history. Discover the rich legacy our people have left behind. And sharing these stories with our family members is even more important in an age where prejudice tries to cover the truth of our existence.

This presentation delves into the lives of Norwegian immigrants in the United States during the 1800s, exploring their contributions to American society and the challenges they faced along the way. As waves of Norwegians sought better opportunities, many settled in the Midwest, particularly in states like Minnesota and Iowa, where they played a pivotal role in shaping local communities. By examining historical newspapers within the OldNews archive, we can uncover valuable insights into their everyday experiences through personal stories, community events, further bringing the process of cultural integration to life. Ultimately, not only highlighting the resilience and determination of Norwegian immigrants but also providing a broader context for understanding early Norwegian-American experiences, whilst also discovering the personal narratives that have shaped their enduring legacy.

Local archives of all kinds have records for your female ancestors. Many times, these records are not digitized or available online. Learn from a seasoned archivist how to locate and research female records in local archives.

This presentation will discuss ways that ancestral stories—obtained from actual documents and records—can be converted to children’s stories. The created story is not necessarily going to be entirely genealogically accurate. The goal of stories for children is to hopefully nurture an interest in their family history, not bore them to tears with an endless list of names and dates. We will discuss the need to omit certain details, fictionalize dialog, and keep the story at the appropriate age level. We will encourage attendees to develop their stories orally as well as via the written word, reminding them that sometimes it’s easier to transcribe a spoken story than it is to write it from scratch. Specific examples discussed will be a story created from an 1820 pig theft in Kentucky, a Nebraska homesteader, and a migration from Indiana to Illinois during the Civil War. We’ll see the actual story and the age-appropriate story that was created from it. The session will conclude with ways to preserve and share the story—and the actual experience that precipitated the creation of the story as well.

There are at least 44 million descendants of enslaved individuals alive today, but slavery separated families, erased names, and obscured facts. The 10 Million Names Project, recently launched by American Ancestors and its partners, aims to connect the family stories of these descendants to the 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in the U.S. prior to emancipation and to restore their names to history. Join Cynthia Evans and learn about the scope of this project, the objectives, and our methodology.