Wanna know my secret for researching in other countries?

It's all about studying the location!

This of course applies to ANY location, not just other countries.

But how do you go about studying a location? Well, there are plenty of resources out there that can help with that! These three resources are my go-tos when I need to get started with researching in a new-to-me country (or a new town/state/region of a country).

1. FamilySearch Wiki

The FamilySearch Wiki has oodles of information on...

My biggest joy comes when I get to roll my sleeves up and teach...so today, I'm dropping a love bomb with this 5-minute fix.

When you sit down to research, do you find yourself wandering around, bouncing from record to record, then hours later realize you've gone down 10 different rabbit holes? Yep...been there, done that.

In my signature program I show genealogists how to go from stuck to unstuck using my problem-solving framework. It's all about getting organized and making a plan to stay...

Last week I went live on Facebook and shared three different strategies for working in challenging locations. I thought I'd share them here too, so here we go...

First, what do I mean by "challenging" locations? Well, when I asked what folks wanted me to cover in my lives this month, a few people mentioned "difficult" locations and southern states, which I'm wrapping into "difficult" because there's a good deal of record loss in southern states, making them a little challenging to work in....

Do you want to know my #1 go-to strategy for solving genealogy research problems?

While I don't believe in a magic potion to erase a genealogy brick wall, I do believe in tried-and-true strategies and putting in the work. Yep...you've got to put in the work

So what's my #1 strategy? REVIEW YOUR WORK!

This is so critical, and oftentimes you actually have the answer among all the records you've collected, or at the very least, you have some clues to help you plan your next steps.

I can't even...

In genealogy, asking for help is a good thing. In fact, it happens to be a problem-solving strategy I advocate (you can grab a copy of my free problem-solving guide here).

Asking for help usually involves a query. You might decide to post a query on a message board or in a Facebook group, or you might even reach out to librarians and archivists in places where your ancestors lived. When you compose a query, there are some dos and don’ts you’ll want to follow so that you can help...