While researching your ancestors, have you come across a cause of death that you do not recognize? When looking at old records, it’s not uncommon to find a cause of death or illness whose name is no longer in use today. You may find these terms in old historical records such as obituaries, death certificates, probate records, or census mortality schedules. Here’s a quick roundup of a few terms you may encounter: Croup – a swelling of… Read the full story

Did your ancestors ever received mail via the Pony Express? The Pony Express was once hailed as the fastest way to send and receive mail across the United States. Although its existence was short, its impact and popularity on the American West has continued to endure. Pony Express poster / Wikimedia Commons Check out these interesting facts about the old mail-delivery system of the United States. 1. The Pony Express was founded by William Russell,… Read the full story

Spring is here! As you start your spring cleaning in your home, you may also want to make time to do a little spring cleaning in your Merge Center too. Do you recall the last time you took a look at your Requested Merges, Tree Conflicts, or Data Conflicts? It’s easy to forget to check these when you are busy adding new branches. Take a fresh look at some of these pending requests and conflicts… Read the full story

We’re back from RootsTech 2018 and we had a wonderful time! Thousands of genealogists from all around the world gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah to attend the largest family history conference in the world. Throughout the conference, the Geni booth was packed with people eager to learn more about collaboration  and Geni’s World Family Tree. Several users stopped by to say hi and tell us how much they enjoy using the… Read the full story

We’re excited to share that the science team at Geni’s parent company, MyHeritage, led by MyHeritage’s Chief Science Officer, Dr. Yaniv Erlich, has had a groundbreaking paper published today in Science, one of the most influential academic journals in the world. The research was conducted with scientists at Columbia University, the New York Genome Center, MIT and Harvard, and provides fresh insights into the last couple of centuries of marriage and migration in Europe and… Read the full story

Have you ever met someone at a conference and wanted to quickly see if you’re related? Now you can use the Geni Pathfinder, our new handy tool on your mobile device to easily discover how you’re related to the people you meet at genealogy conferences, family reunions, or anywhere else! Begin by navigating to this url on your mobile device: https://www.geni.com/pathfinder (you will be prompted to login, if you have not already). A QR code and… Read the full story

Next week the Geni team will be heading to Salt Lake City, Utah for RootsTech 2018, the world’s largest genealogy conference. Between February 28 – March 3, thousands of genealogists from around the world will gather at the Salt Palace Convention Center to learn more about the latest in the world of genealogy. This year has an exciting group of keynote speakers, including Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton and renowned genealogist Henry Louis Gates, Jr. With… Read the full story

Happy Chinese New Year! Also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, the new year is celebrated according to the lunar calendar with each year associated with one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. Today marks the first day of the Year of the Dog on the lunar calendar. In celebration of the new year, here are some things to know about the holiday: 1. At the core of the holiday is family… Read the full story

Geni curator Randy Schoenberg recently gave a great webinar, “Introducing the Geni World Family Tree,” with Legacy Family Tree webinars. If you missed it, you can catch it now in the video below. Join Randy as he gives a great introduction to the benefits of collaboration in the World Family Tree and discusses why you should be building and preserving your family tree on Geni. Randy also talks about some of the unique features of Geni, including genealogy projects, which… Read the full story

Geni curator Jarrett Ross, also known as the GeneaVlogger, recently made a great video on how to use Projects on Geni. Projects are a great way to organize your research about any particular topic and work with others who are also interested in that same research topic. By adding relevant profiles to the project, all project collaborators can easily work together to add new discoveries to the World Family Tree. If you are interested in a particular genealogy research subject, you can quickly start a… Read the full story