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!