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Family Search Family Tree Sources and Memories

June 27, 2025

Whenever I’m researching a new ancestor or helping someone else research an ancestor, my first step is to look for the ancestor on the Family Search Family Tree. It’s a quick way to see what research might already have been done on a particular ancestor. The fact that it’s free is a bonus.

 

Family Search does require you to have an account to access the tree. Creating an account is simple and free. You won’t need to give a credit card number or use any other type of ID to access the site.

 

More than 1.72 billion people can be found on the tree. It’s likely that you will find entries for many of your ancestors. Individual entries can provide you with names of parents, spouses and children. They often contain places and dates of birth, marriage and death as well. This can be a quick way to fit someone into your family tree.

 

However, finding your ancestor on the tree is only the beginning. Many entries on the tree will also include sources for the information posted there. There are often copies of the actual source along with a citation detailing where the information came from.

 

Anyone can add a source on the Family Tree so some sources may be incorrect. For example, I have three Parshall Terry’s in my family line. All three of them are on Family Tree, and all three of them have numerous sources. However, some of the sources are attached to the wrong Parshall. Anyone who consults the Family Tree’s sources should be aware that some sources may be incorrectly assigned to an ancestor. Always verify anything you find.

 

Another interesting section of an ancestor’s entry is called Memories. Memories are copies of actual photos and documents. I have found numerous photos that I’d never seen before in this section. In addition, you may find copies of marriages licenses, death certificates and obituaries in this area.

 

Sources and Memories are great places to verify the information found in an ancestor’s entry. Both include the names and usually contact information for the person who posted the document or photo. I’ve contacted several people I found in these sections. In a couple of cases, I’ve connected with long lost branches of my family and opened the door to sharing family information.

 

Even if you’ve been doing family research for decades, Family Search’s Family Tree is worth checking. It may be the key to breaking down longstanding brick walls.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

Biology for Genealogists

May 20, 2025

Some time ago, I wrote about mistakes genealogists make when they’re building online family trees. Lately, I’ve been checking out some online trees, and my inner schoolteacher is still astounded at the types of errors that people make. I thought I’d rerun part of that earlier column.

 

The trees make me wonder where the creators were when their high school class discussed basic biology. Clearly, they weren’t paying much attention. Here are a few rules of basic biology that might help some genealogists make entries in their family tree.

 

As far as I know, these rules haven’t changed in at least the last 400 years. This means although answers to genealogy questions are often based on the rule of “it depends,” there are a few constants. First, a mother and her child are always in the same place when the child is born. That is a fact. The mother and child may never be in the same place again, but for that one day, they are in the same place. If you have a proposed mother who never left Connecticut and a child who was born and lived in Georgia, you probably need to rethink. That New England woman is not likely the mother of that southern baby.

 

Another rule of basic biology is that the parents of a child had to be together at least once, about nine months before the child was born. If a man and a woman were on different continents at the relevant time, you may want to dig a little deeper.

 

Furthermore, people weren’t always married when they conceived a child, despite what Cousin Helen might have told you about your great grandparents. Although premature babies are always possible, the huge numbers of first baby preemies found on our family trees should be cause for suspicion, although not judgement.

 

Another basic biological fact is that women don’t give birth every six months as some family trees show. One of my second great grandmothers had eleven children, and how those children fit into the family has long been a subject of discussion among their descendants. Many of their trees show one of the children being born six months after my great grandfather, which is clearly impossible. As the old saying goes “A baby takes nine months, except for the first one” (see the above paragraph about that).

 

The bottom line is if something seems “off,” it probably is. The way to prevent these embarrassing mistakes is to think before you add data to your tree. These were actual people, and they followed the rules of nature, just like we do. We all make mistakes. Sometimes stupid ones crawl into our work, even when we try to prevent them. Spending a little time looking at how families fit together can help weed out some of the most egregious errors.

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society

 

 

 

 

 

Looking for BMDs

June 13, 2025

BMDs, short for births, marriages and deaths, are the building blocks of all genealogical research. They’re the skeleton upon which all other research rests. That’s why genealogists spend so much time looking for those all-important birth dates, marriage dates and death dates. As a new genealogist, I learned that civil registration records were one of the most accurate sources of BMDs.

 

For more recent ancestors, civil registration records are a great source. However, in the U.S., civil registration is a relatively new phenomenon. In most parts of the United States, birth and death certificates were not required until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In some states, such as Colorado, they were not required until the twentieth century.

 

Marriage records were kept earlier in most places, although not at the state level. Counties typically kept records of marriages. This means that you’ll need to know the county of the marriage to find records.

 

Civil registration records can also be problematic to access due to privacy issues. Colorado, for example, considers civil registration records confidential. These records are not available online in any form. Eligibility requirements limit those who can obtain these records from the vital records department. This usually means that birth and death certificates for collateral relatives will not be available in any form.

 

Many states do allow unlimited access to their civil registration records with some caveats. For example, Utah allows unlimited access to birth certificates after 100 years and to death certificates after 50 years. More recent records are available only to eligible researchers. This usually means proving direct descent from the person whose certificate you are seeking. Other states impose similar restrictions.

 

States who allow unlimited access to some vital records may have digitized these records. It’s worth checking the state archive website as well as the general genealogy websites such as Family Search and Ancestry. If you are eligible to order a copy of a more recent certificate, contact the state health department of the relevant state for information concerning proving eligibility and costs.

 

For earlier ancestors or for collateral relatives, sources other than civil registration certificates must be consulted. These sources can include church records, cemetery records, newspaper articles such as obits and birth notices, military records and census records. It may take multiple record types to piece together BMDs for some earlier ancestors.

 

Looking for BMDs will be an ongoing process as you discover new ancestors. It can be frustrating to learn that sources such as civil registration records will only be available for a portion of your ancestors. Fortunately, other records can often substitute for them.

 

Happy Hunting!

 

Carol Stetser

Researcher

Larimer County Genealogical Society