One Simple Genealogy Research Habit: Are You Doing It?
***Please note that this post contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission if you decide to purchase a product/service. This does not cost you extra. Be assured I only recommend products/services that I use and think you would like too. Read my disclosure policy and privacy policy.
Find your ancestors in more records using this one simple genealogy research habit. It’s easy, quick and vital to growing your family tree.
Your research is stuck, isn’t it? I bet you have a couple brick wall ancestors that you’re working on.
In this post and the video above, I’m going to show you how to find new and updated collections at the major genealogy databases to see if we can get our research moving forward in the right direction.
Find NEW & Updated Genealogy Records
An important genealogy research habit you need to cultivate is to go back and recheck on a regular basis genealogy databases for updates into their collections.
✔Recheck genealogy databases regularly for new updates to their collections!
This means going back and checking digitized databases and collections like Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, MyHeritage and FamilySearch you have already searched to see what has newly been digitized and added to a database. These genealogy companies and many archives as well, are consistently adding records to their collections.
If we as genealogy researchers do not regularly check for updates or new collections added, we run the risk of missing out an important collection that could be holding that vital clue to our ancestors.
Building Your Genealogy Research Habit
First things first, pull out your calendar, and decide when you want to recheck those databases. Go ahead and schedule those database rechecks on your calendar. The easiest thing to do is to check and recheck those databases for new records on the first of the month. The timing isn’t as important is the fact that you actually do the checks.
FamilySearch
Each week FamilySearch publishes a blog post on the FamilySearch blog that details the new records that have been added to their collections. In the video, I show you step by step how to find these new records.
A check of their new and updated collections in April revealed over 13 million New York Land Records, US obituaries, the AMA physician records among it newest offerings. For ease in checking you can filter for US as well as international records.
I do recommend that you go ahead and subscribe to the FamilySearch blog. You will be notified when new posts are are added. Be sure to explore their posts on other topics, too. All are absolutely fantastic.
MyHeritage
MyHeritage also publishes a blog post monthly with newly added record collections. You will want to bookmark and/or subscribe to their blog to stay updated. The advantage of subscribing to their blog and email list is you will be notified when their latest posts are up.
In a recent check of their genealogy collections found 11 million records added. If you are performing German research, you will want to check this out! Around the time of RootsTech 2022, a large collection if records was released that included US based city directories. They are rapidly adding to their collections!
FindMyPast
FindMyPast also posts their new and updated genealogy collections on their blog. They post these each Friday in their appropriately named series FindMyPast Fridays!
Simply click on the latest Fridays post to see what’s new. I walk you step by step through that in the video above!
Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com is a little bit different from the other three when it comes to finding their newest collections and updates. It is actually easier!
You will find the link right on their home page. How easy is that?!
Go from your Ancestry.com homepage, look in the right hand sidebar, and scroll down to “tools and resources”. Here you have new and updated collections is the second one down. Simply click through, and you are there. Ancestry.com also gives a nice glimpse of upcoming records and a general timeline for those. That helps in the planning of research projects.
As with the other genealogy databases, watch the video at the top of this post to see step by step how to find these new and updated genealogy records.
I hope I have convinced you that performing regular rechecks of new and previously searched genealogy collections should be a part of your genealogy research habits and part of your genealogy research plans.
Learn more about creating genealogy research plans in this video:
One Comment
Kathy
I really like your blog posts, good information but with all the ads I click away quickly can’t read the info for the ads.