Your Family Tree's Top 10s

At the end of each day that I work on my family tree, I export a GEDCOM file from Family Tree Maker. Any family tree software program and some online trees give you this option. Today we'll use that GEDCOM to highlight trends in our family trees.

First, open your latest GEDCOM in the free Family Tree Analyzer program. The main screen has some interesting numbers. Here's what it finds for my tree:

• Direct Ancestors: 418
• Descendants: 2
• Blood Relations: 18,520
• Married to Blood or Direct Relation: 5,226
• Related by Marriage: 50,035
• Linked through Marriages: 10,343
• Unknown relation: 189

Let's use Family Tree Analyzer to discover the Top 10s in our family trees.

Follow a few simple steps to discover the Top 10s in your family tree.

Top 10 Jobs in Your Family Tree

In Family Tree Analyzer, click the Main Lists tab and then the Occupations tab beneath it. This displays 2 columns: Occupation and Count. Click the arrow next to Count and choose Sort Z to A. Now the list shows you the most common jobs in your family tree.

Note: If Sort Z to A doesn't look like it worked, change it to Sort A to Z and then back again. That should do the trick.

For a long time, I didn't bother adding a particular occupation to my Italian relatives. Contadino (masculine) or Contadina (feminine) is a farmer or peasant. I come from peasants. They were almost all contadini! But I have tried to add them lately. Here are the Top 10 Jobs in my family tree:

• Bracciale (farmhand or laborer), 718
• Contadino and Contadina (both mean farmer or peasant) combined, 338
• Custode di Pecore and Pastore (both mean shepherd) combined, 186
• Calzolaio (shoemaker), 109
• Sartore (tailor), 97
• Filatrice (cotton spinner or seamstress), 93
• Proprietario and Proprietaria (both mean owner, proprietor, or landlord), 101
• Tessitrice (weaver), 72
• Massaro (steward or farm manager), 59
• Massaro di Campo (farm owner), 54

I'm surprised to see that the occupations I pulled from U.S. Census records have such small numbers. Then again, I had no one in the U.S. until the 1900 census, and many of them changed jobs often. Here are the Top 10 U.S. Jobs in my family tree:

• Laborer, 14
• New Worker, 10
• Shoemaker, 9
• Farmer, 7
• Chauffeur (truck driver), 6
• Clerk, 6
• Barber, 6
• Operator at a Dress Factory, 5
• Telephone Operator, 5
• Carpenter, 5

Most of the people who make up that list lived in New York City where jobs of all types were plentiful. The farmers were my husband's relatives in California.

Top 10 Sources in Your Family Tree

If your number of sources is low, you owe it to everyone with any connection to you to work on your source citations! My family tree uses 565 different sources.

To the left of the Occupations tab, click the Sources tab. The label on the last column in this table is Num Facts. Click the arrow next to Num Facts and choose Sort Z to A. Now the list shows the most-used sources in your family tree.

Here are the Top 10 Sources in my family tree:

• State Archives of Benevento, town of Colle Sannita, 54,560 (and I have SO many more to add)
• State Archives of Benevento, town of Baselice, 8,514 (many facts still need this source)
• State Archives of Benevento, town of Pescolamazza, 7,748 (many facts still need this source)
• State Archives of Avellino, town of Santa Paolina, 6,931 (many facts still need this source)
• 1940 U.S. Federal Census, 2,509
• the book "Colle Sannita nel 1742" by Dr. Fabio Paolucci, 2,337
• State Archives of Benevento, town of Apice, 2,037
• State Archives of Benevento, town of Sant'Angelo a Cupolo, 1,827
• State Archives of Benevento, town of Circello, 1,708
• 1930 U.S. Federal Census, 1,442

As usual, Italians dominate my family tree. The #1 source is not a surprise to me, but the amount is staggering. This is the hometown of the paternal side of my family tree, and everyone's related to me somehow.

Top 10 Last Names in Your Family Tree

For this list, we can restrict the results to our blood relatives. Click the Surnames tab next to the Main Lists tab. In the Relationship Types section, choose (1) Direct Ancestors, (2) Blood Relations, and (3) Descendants. Now click the Show Surnames button. This will take a while to display if your family tree is very large. Watch the progress bar in the lower left corner of the program to see that it's working.

Once your table displays, click the arrow next to the Individuals column and choose Sort Z to A. Now you can see the most common names in your family tree. Here are the Top 10 Last Names in my family tree:

• Pozzuto, 889
• Mascia, 861
• Zeolla, 833
• Martuccio, 772
• Piacquadio, 673
• delGrosso, 562
• Iamarino (my maiden name), 489
• Pilla, 481
• Palmiero, 472
• Basile, 382

Every one of those last names comes from Colle Sannita. Three or four are also found in my other ancestral hometowns. This list surprises me because I restricted the results to blood relatives. The results look very different if I include spouses and their families.

Now try this. Clear the sort from the Individuals column and sort the Families or Marriages columns from Z to A. For me, the Families have the same Top 10 Last Names, but in a different order. The same is true for the Marriages column—same names, different order. Is that true for your family tree?

Top 10 Treetops in Your Family Tree

A "treetop" is the eldest person on each branch of your family tree. They represent the furthest back you've gone with your research. Click the Treetops tab that's way to the right of the Surnames tab. In the Relationship Types section, choose (1) Direct Ancestors, (2) Blood Relations, and (3) Descendants. There are 2 more options that are pre-chosen, and you can leave them that way:

• Include Unknown Countries in Treetops Filter
• Include Individuals that have only one parent known

Now click the Show People at top of tree button.

This table loads fast, and at the bottom left I see my tree has 284 treetops. Let's see which last names can boast the deepest roots in our family trees. Click the arrow next to the Surname column and choose Sort Z to A.

In my family tree, some of my treetops are living DNA matches. I chose to research only the side of their family that's related to me. To filter these people out, let's restrict the results to direct ancestors only. Leave the Surname sort in place. Over in the Relation column, click the arrow and choose only Direct Ancestor.

Here are the Top 10 Direct Ancestor Treetops in my family tree, sorted by last name:

• #1: Zullo, Giuseppe. He's my 6th great grandfather born about 1711.
• #2–10: Zeolla, born as early as about 1646. They are my 4th through 9th great grandparents. Talk about deep roots!

It's only now, looking at these results, that I realize how important the name Zeolla is in my family tree. The 4 names I grew up knowing are way down the list:

• Iamarino, my maiden name, has four 7th and 8th great grandparents at the treetop. The Iamarino name was in the town of Colle Sannita for centuries, but never in huge numbers.
• Leone, my maternal grandfather's name, has one 5th and one 6th great grandparent at the treetop. The Leone name was in the town of Baselice for centuries, but in very small numbers.
• Sarracino, my grandmother's father's name, has one 5th great grandfather at the treetop. This family came from a very small town that didn't start keeping civil records until 1861. Discovering that fact was a devastating blow.
• Saviano, my grandmother's mother's name, has one 3rd great grandfather at the treetop. The Saviano family came from the same undocumented town as the Sarracino family.

I'm sure you'll find surprises when you generate your Top 10 lists. You may even uncover areas that need your research attention. I'd love to hear what you've found and if any of the names or towns I've listed mean anything to you. Please leave a comment below.

Six 2025 Articles to Elevate Your Family Tree

Whenever I review the articles I've published in this blog, I discover tips I've forgotten. My own tips—forgotten! As I explore a new resource or technique to share with you, I often say in the article that I need to do this, too. Then I forget to follow my own advice.

I have to imagine this happens to you, too. You read lots of family tree articles, but you don't always put what you've learned into use. So let's do this together. Let's review 6 articles from 2025, pick the ones that apply to us, and get to work!

Here's your chance to put 6 kinds of genealogy tips to work to fortify your family tree.

5 Steps to Making a Cousin Connection

If you've taken a DNA test, you'll have many matches you can't place in your family tree. If they are a decent match sharing 30 cMs or more with you, don't give up! Even if they don't provide a family tree, you can use your research skills to get some traction. In this article you'll find 5 steps to help you turn that interesting DNA match into a documented cousin.

You Must Find Your Ancestor's Hometown First

When our ancestors came from another country than ours, we have a disadvantage. We don't know enough about their country. Until we have a good understanding of their homeland, our research may be at a standstill.

This describes my earliest days of family tree building. My grandmother's generation said the family came from two places. The first was a town that had a soundalike. They were from Pastene, but I started looking into Pastena. That was a wild ride because both town have our family name of Sarracino.

The other place was Avellino, but I soon found out that's like saying you're from New York. The city or the state? Avellino is both a city and a province in Italy. It took a lot of research to find the real town: Santa Paolina.

This article has 5 tips you can use to pinpoint your ancestor's hometown, the same as I did. And that's the key to finding their vital records. Once you know the town, and you see it on the map, you can identify your relatives.

4 Reasons to Digitize All Your Genealogy Work

Have you digitized your genealogy assets yet? If you're a huge fan of color-coded binders, that's fine. But if your work isn't digitized, too, it's at risk. Fire, flood, and other disasters could destroy your tremendous discoveries.

This article explains 4 important reasons to digitize your work. Find the tips and techniques you need to get the job done.

How to Share Your Family Tree With Cousins

Genealogy is all I do and all I want to do. I get so deep in the weeds that the bulk of my family tree isn't going to interest my 1st and 2nd cousins. But sometimes those close cousins have questions. They want me to share my tree with them.

My 84,000-person family tree would overwhelm them. There isn't a printout I can share. But I have found ways to give them exactly what they each need. Find out how you can create a self-serve option for the cousins who want to see "their" family tree.

5 Discovery Techniques for Your Family Tree

Has your family tree research has stalled? Are you unsure how to fill those empty branches? Then this is a good article for you. Looking back at my research, I can identify 5 discovery techniques that made my family tree grow to such a big size.

Take a look at these 5 techniques, and find out which ones can help you grow and fortify your family tree.

How Reliable Is Your Family Tree?

Wouldn't it be amazing if every distant cousin and DNA match shared a robust family tree? Well, the first step in reaching that ideal is to publish your own reliable family tree for others to find.

In this article are several tips to help your family tree attract those cousins and DNA matches. Be the ideal and they'll strive to do the same.

I encourage you to explore my blog for your specific needs and questions. Use the search feature on this page to find what you need. If there's a topic I haven't covered yet, please let me know!

Get Familiar with Your Ancestral Homeland for Free

If you're over 21, you probably had your last world geography lesson a long time ago. How many details can you remember about countries other your own? For example, I'm from the USA, and I realized I can't name more than half the provinces in neighboring Canada.

There's an easy way to learn about your immigrant ancestors' homeland. Understanding the regions, states, and cities will inform your genealogy research.

How to Use This Free Resource

The FamilySearch Wiki offers a free, easy-to-use guide to the country of your choice. On the Wiki's main page you'll see a map of the world. Start by clicking a continent, then choose a country. I'm going to start with England.

This free genealogy resource makes those overseas homelands seem closer and more familiar.

When I click the continent of Europe, I see an alphabetical list of its countries. I'll click England. Then I see an alphabetical list of all the English counties. Since I'm not sure which county I need, I'll click the country name at the top of the list.

Once you choose a country, you'll see a more detailed map. This map divides the country into its sections. These may be counties, provinces, prefectures, states, regions—it depends on the country. Beneath the maps is a list of the sections, each with a link to more detailed information.

There are people in my family tree from Derbyshire, so I'll start there. The detail page tells me there are 132 parishes in the county. I know this family lived in Spondon. In the list of Derbyshire parishes, I'll go to the letter S and click Spondon.

At this town level, you can find links to document collections, maps, and many references. I like the country map showing all the counties. In my family tree, one English group is from Derbyshire, and another is from Lancashire. Seeing this map, I learn that Derbyshire borders Lancashire. That's quite a coincidence.

When I click the continent of Asia and the country of Japan, I see a list of the 47 prefectures within the eight regions. My husband's ancestors came from Hiroshima, and I see that's in the Chūgoku region. (I didn't know that off the top of my head.) The Japan section of the Wiki doesn't have much detail. But it does have a link to a very detailed Wikipedia page. There I found that Hiroshima is on the island of Honshu, which is where you'll find Mount Fuji.

I have cousins whose Italian ancestors emigrated to Brazil. (See "How to Make the Most of an Intriguing Genealogy Lead".) I'm not at all familiar with the geography of that country. I'll click the South America continent and the country of Brazil on the FamilySearch Wiki. First I see a map breaking down the five regions and 27 states. Did you know Brazil has 27 states? I didn't.

Many of these cousins went to Itapira in São Paulo, but I don't have a feel for where that is on a map. On the FamilySearch Wiki page for Brazil, I'll click the São Paulo state. First I see that the state borders the Atlantic Ocean, and it's pretty far south in the country. When my cousins arrived, the city of São Paulo was a convenient location, populous and not too far from the shore.

The state has tons of municipalities. I'll click the only one I can tie to these cousins: Itapira. This page links to document collections that can be very useful to my research.

It should be fun to look at a more familiar location, like the place where I grew up. (See also "Discover Your Ancestral Hometown's History".) I'll click the North America continent, the United States, New York, and Rockland County. Here I find a list of populated places. It's divided into towns, villages, hamlets, census-designated places, and one ghost town!

They created the ghost town in 1928 by submerging a settlement of 30 houses to create a lake I visited as a kid. I never heard about this before!

The place I lived for most of my school years (age 5–19) is a "census-designated place" that covers only 2.2 square miles. But my old house sits in a village that didn't exist until four years after my family moved away. The information about the village led me to a collection of historical photos that blew my mind.

When I was in school, I used to ride my bike to a beautiful street nearby called Wesley Chapel Road. I brought a camera along and photographed some of my favorite old houses. The village's website features one of those farm houses in a photo. The house dates back to 1896. There's also a 1904 photo of a little house my family passed all the time. It shows a big family standing by the picket fence.

I learned they named one of the main streets nearest my old house, Forshay Road, after W. Spencer Forshay. He established a cigar manufacturing shop there in 1851. I never thought about the area being that old. I can relate to the photo of a snow-covered street near the school where I attended 1st and 2nd grade. It seemed to snow all winter long when I was a kid.

If I can find fun new facts about the place where I grew up, imagine what you can find about the places your ancestors lived.

Whichever country you choose to explore, be sure to look at the right column on the map page. This can contain:

• beginning research tips
• types of records kept
• historical and cultural background
• local research resources, and more.

Where does your genealogy research tell you to explore first?

Get In-Depth Answers to Your Genealogy Questions

Recently I told you about my grandfather's journey to America. First he had to get from Southern Italy to Northern France. There, not in Napoli, he boarded a ship bound for New York. That huge overland distance has puzzled me ever since I found his 1920 ship manifest.

There were about 300 other Southern Italians on the ship with him. That leads me to believe the Red Star Line gave them an incentive, like a deep discount, to come to France to sail. Now I've decided to use my favorite AI search engine, Microsoft Copilot, to help map out his journey.

Using a conversational search engine that cites its sources, you can discover the answers to your burning genealogy questions.

Unlike AI search engines that seem to hallucinate, Copilot cites its sources. That lets you use that source and search further. (Choose the Think Deeper option rather than Quick response.)

Crafting Your Query

Here's what I typed into Copilot:

I'm curious about the types of transportation used in rural Southern Italian towns in 1920. My grandfather traveled a long way to the north of France to sail to America that year. How would he have done that?

The answer confirmed what I thought. The most common methods of travel were walking, riding a horse or mule, or riding in a cart pulled by a horse or mule. Then he would take trains to his port of departure.

Copilot suggested I provide more information for a more specific answer. What was my grandfather's hometown and from which port did he sail? I typed:

My grandfather lived in Colle Sannita, in the Benevento Province. He sailed from Cherbourg, France.

The answers were more specific now. Grandpa would have to walk, ride an animal, or ride in an animal-drawn cart to get to the Benevento train station. He may have ridden the train first to Napoli, then way up north to Genoa or Torino, then to Paris and on to Cherbourg. Wow, does that sound like an ordeal.

The entire trip, before setting sail, may have taken Grandpa about a week. One of the sources Copilot cited is one I used before to form my theory about this trip.

Mapping it Out

I used Google Maps to further imagine Grandpa's journey. To get to the nearest train station in the city of Benevento in 1920, he could walk for almost 8 hours. Or he could walk half that distance to the town of Reino. It's possible that in Reino, he could hire someone to take him in a cart to the Benevento train station. Or, and this is a long shot, he could hire a car or take a bus. On today's roads, that only a half hour drive from Reino to Benevento.

I've been to the Benevento train station, which dates back to 1868. It's large, and from there, Grandpa could have taken a train, or a series of trains, all the way to Cherbourg.

More examples of using Copilot for genealogy:

• How to Use AI to Analyze Family Photos
• Use History to Fill In Your Ancestor's Story
• How to Get Useful Answers to Your Genealogy Questions
• How to Get Useful Answers to Your Genealogy Questions
• The Dangerous Jobs Your Ancestors Endured

Was This Event So Unique?

I wondered if anyone else in my family tree had sailed from Cherbourg. In my Family Tree Maker file, I went to the Places tab and clicked France. Then I chose the Basse-Normandie region, then the Manche department, and then Cherbourg. What a surprise! There were 8 people, including Grandpa, who made a similar journey. Six of them came from Grandpa's town, one came from a bit further north, and one came from Sicily. Even more surprising is that all 8 traveled in 1920.

These 8 people are the tiniest fraction of my family tree. But I'll bet there was one hell of a promotion going on in 1920 to attract them. I'll have to look at some Italian newspapers for that year. How great would it be to find a Red Star Line advertisement to solve this mystery once and for all?

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When you think about your own family tree, what questions do you have that no one in the family can answer? Are there facts that strike you as odd? Is there anything you wish you could talk to someone about? Talk to my friend, Microsoft Copilot. I've seen it give reliable answers to many of my questions—even medical ones.

Keep it in mind when your next mystery comes up.

How Reliable Is Your Family Tree?

When we're new to building a family tree, many of us start entering details known to our closest relatives. Many of those names, dates, and places may be correct. But if you don't have any documents to back up your information, then it's all hearsay. Why should your newfound 3rd cousin believe your tree?

I want each of us to make our family tree as professional as possible. I want your tree to be your legacy. "Oh, she was the cousin who did all that family history research. She did an amazing job!" That's what the relatives will say about you.

These tips will help you make your glorious family tree an ultra-reliable thing of beauty.

My family tree at the moment has a staggering 84,675 people. Are they all my blood relatives? Heck no. But all my ancestors came from small, neighboring towns in Italy. So the connections are endless. For centuries, people in these little towns married someone from their town or the next town. My whopper of a tree pulls these towns together—as far together as the available records allow.

My family tree gives hints to distant cousins and unrelated people who have roots in the same towns as me. I'm thrilled when a stranger finds their relatives in my family tree. But I understand my responsibility, and I take it seriously.

We all have a responsibility to publish verified facts if we have our tree anywhere online. That's why I'm STILL working through the list of people in my tree who need source citations. (See how you can "Catch and Fix Your Missing Source Citations".) After more than a year, I've cut my list of completely unsourced people in half. I don't know if I should be happy or start crying.

Here are a few past articles to inspire you to give "cred" to the people and facts in your family tree.

Provide the Proof and Change Their Minds

As this genealogy hobby grows and spreads, so does misinformation. Find out how these errors get started, what to do about them, and how to avoid making them yourself.

How to Be a Family Tree Myth Buster

In the 1970s my brother was writing a college paper on our family history. Grandpa said his father became an evangelical minister in Italy. That had to be unusual. The only way I was able to confirm this story was in person.

When I visited the children of Grandpa's younger sister in Italy, they told me the story and showed me the chapel. It still exists!

There's no available documentation about my great grandfather's church. But there were documents to prove another bit of family lore—and disprove yet another.

3 Ways to Best Use Family Tree Hints

Online family tree hints can be a big help. But a hint that links to someone else's family tree, and not to any documents, is not a source. It's nothing more than a clue to guide your research.

To make your family tree produce valuable hints for others, be sure you're using hints the right way. These examples will take your research to the next level.

How to Tell if a Hint is Any Good

When you do find those hints, you may see that some are worth pursuing. And if you have enough evidence to know the hint is correct, be ready to expand that search. Find out how to harvest that good hint for all it's worth.

5 Tips to Use When Genealogy Documents Disagree

As you work to provide proof for your facts, you're bound to find "facts" that disagree. These 5 tips will help you make sense of a jumble of data. What can you do if the document that would provide 100% proof is not available? Follow the logic and see which document is the most reliable.

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It's time to get busy. But don't worry. If your family tree isn't massive like mine, this worthwhile project won't take you forever.

These High-Resolution Vital Records Are Free!

I've mentioned the New York City Municipal Archives website a few times in this blog. It's about time I explained how to use this treasure.

I visited the archives at gorgeous 31 Chambers Street in Manhattan a couple of times. Before each trip, I used Ancestry.com to look up vital record certificate numbers for my relatives. The process at the archives was to find the right drawer and microfilm reel you needed to view. Then you scroll through to find your document.

Bring the genealogy treasures of this stunning archive right into your home.

Not long ago, the NYC Municipal Archives granted access to many vital records online for free! I've downloaded hundreds of documents as PDFs. Then I extracted JPG images to place in my family tree. (See my note about this extraction near the end of this article.)

Here's a list of the NYC vital records you can find online:

• Bronx:
  • births: 1872 to 1873, 1876, 1888 to 1891, 1895 to 1909
  • marriages: 1898 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1914 to 1931
  • deaths: 1898 to 1948
• Brooklyn:
  • births: 1866 to 1909
  • marriages: 1866 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1938 to 1949
  • deaths: 1862 to 1948
• Manhattan:
  • births: 1855, 1857 to 1861, 1863 to 1865, 1866 to 1909
  • marriages: 1866 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1908 to 1910, 1938 to 1949
  • deaths: 1866 to 1867, 1871 to 1875, 1920 to 1948
• Queens:
  • births: 1866, 1876, 1883, 1886, 1888 to 1909
  • marriages: 1898 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1938 to 1949
  • deaths: 1881 to 1892, 1898 to 1948
• Staten Island:
  • births: 1898 to 1909
  • marriages: 1898 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1908 to 1949
  • deaths: 1898 to 1948

Only now do I realize they added marriage licenses this past Spring! I found on Ancestry that my grandparents got their marriage license on 29 Jun 1922, and it was #3410 in the Bronx. Entering that year and certificate number into the form I'm about to explain, I see their 4-page marriage license.

I'm eager to download as many licenses as I can.

Now let's look at two ways you can search the online archives.

Find a Certificate With the Number, Year, and Place

Use your favorite genealogy research site to find the number, year, and NYC borough of the certificate you want. Then go to https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/search. Near the top of the web page, below the By Certificate Number heading:

• Select the type of certificate (birth, death, or marriage)
• Enter the certificate number (this is a required field)
• Select the borough: Kings (Brooklyn), Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Richmond (Staten Island)
• Enter the year (this is not required, but it helps if you know it)
• Click the Search button

Here's an example you can try. Select Birth Certificate, enter certificate number 5490, choose the Bronx, and enter the year 1905. The result is my grandmother's brother Emilio's birth certificate.

Quick note about the year. I had trouble finding my grandparents 8 Oct 1922 marriage certificate because the city filed it in 1923. If it's late in the year, keep that in mind.

Find a Certificate by Name

If you don't have a certificate number for your search, scroll down the same page to find the By Name heading. In this search area, you have to enter only the Certificate Type and Last Name. You can select a borough and enter a year if you know it.

Here's an example you can try. Choose Death Certificate, enter the last name Saviano, and change the borough to Bronx. Click the Search button.

Every result on that page is my cousin or my cousin's spouse. The same is true if we search for Saviano births in the Bronx. But let's try a search that needs a little more work. This time let's search for any Bronx birth certificates with my maiden name, Iamarino. This gives us a page that says No Results. But we can fine-tune the search from here.

You have two options. (1) Change the Certificate Type, and/or narrow down the Year Range, and/or change the Borough and click the Update button. (2) Below the Update button, remove filters one at a time and see what happens. When I click to remove Birth Certificate as a filter, I get three results:

• My 3rd great uncle Francesco Iamarino's 1937 death certificate.
• My 2nd great uncle Giuseppe Iamarino's 1938 death certificate.
• My 1st cousin twice removed Peter Iamarino's 1920 marriage certificate.

You can see how a less-specific search can yield more results. But if your broad search uses a common last name, you can run into a roadblock. The search results show only the first 100 results. Sometimes that doesn't even get you to the letter C in the alphabetical list. Keep changing the variables until you get what you want.

Image Extraction

I mentioned earlier that I extract JPG images from the PDFs I download. I use a very old copy of Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro that makes image extraction easy. I can open a PDF, go to the File menu and choose Export, Image, JPEG. This gives me wonderful high-resolution images.

But most of you won't have Adobe Acrobat Pro. So I found instructions for exporting images using the free Acrobat Reader. Scroll down this page to see the 9 steps.

I hope this resource helps you locate the NYC members of your family tree.

And speaking of vital records:

• Family Mystery Solved! Two Lost Boys Found
• 3 Types of Bonus Details on Italian Vital Records
• Family Tree Research Takes Time to Bear Fruit