Summer is finally here! It’s the perfect time to get outdoors for some fun genealogy activities with your family. With longer days, you and your family can spend even more quality time together while also learning about your family’s heritage. Make the most of these long summer days with these family history activities: Photograph gravestones Now that the days are filled with sun, take your family on a trip to visit the graves of your ancestors or… Read the full story

How’s this for a birthday gift? For her 100th birthday, Dorothy Martell witnessed the birth of her great-great grandson! KPNX reports that Weston Alexander Heiser was born on June 6, 2016, exactly 100 years to the day since Dorothy was born. Weston is the first son of Dorothy’s great granddaughter, Alyssa Heiser. Since finding out about her pregnancy, Alyssa had hoped she might give birth on her great grandmother’s birthday. She had gone into early labor… Read the full story

This weekend the Geni team headed over to the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport for the 47th annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree. Over 1,400 people attended this year’s conference. The Geni booth before the exhibit hall opened We had a wonderful time catching up with old friends, chatting with Geni users and introducing the power of collaboration on Geni’s World Family Tree to newcomers. The conference flew by as the exhibit hall was filled with attendees throughout… Read the full story

Thanks to the collaboration of millions of genealogists and family historians, Geni’s World Family Tree has over 100 million profiles connected. That’s over 100 million people connected to a single family tree! Here are 10 reasons why you should be collaborating in the World Family Tree now: 1. Work with others in projects Why research alone, when there’s an entire community who is just as passionate about genealogy as you? Who better to work with than… Read the full story

We’re excited for the 47th Annual Southern California Genealogy Jamboree taking place on June 3-5, 2016 at the Los Angeles Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel. Jamboree has always been one of the most fun genealogy events of the year. A short drive from the Geni office, Jamboree is a great opportunity to reunite with old friends and meet new faces. This year’s theme is “Giving to the Future by Preserving the Past.” Presentations will be held on a… Read the full story

Do you have royal blood? On this day in 1819, Queen Victoria was born in Kensington Palace in London. One of the longest reigning monarchs in British history, Victoria’s strategic marriage of her nine children to royal and noble families across Europe earned her the nickname, “the Grandmother of Europe.” Image: Library of Congress In honor of her birthday, here are some interesting facts about Queen Victoria: 1. She was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke… Read the full story

Have you found any funny or unusual names during your genealogy research? Naming trends change and evolve over time, so what may seem odd-sounding to us today, may not have been so strange at the time. Nevertheless, we still get a good chuckle when we come across one of these names as we think to ourselves, “what were they thinking?” Check out some funny and unusual names we found in Geni’s World Family Tree! 1. Experience Bliss 2. Fanny Rash 3. Honest… Read the full story

As any genealogist will say, documents are vital to doing good genealogy research. It’s important to remember to upload your documents to your family’s profiles on Geni and add sources to ensure the family tree is as accurate as possible. What happens when you have a document with multiple people in it? Records such as the census or passengers lists may hold the names of entire families. Instead of uploading the document to every profile, you can simply tag… Read the full story

Do you have immigrant ancestors? Here’s an interesting video from Metrocosm depicting immigration to the United States from 1820 to 2013. Watch the changing immigration patterns in the U.S. over a period of nearly two centuries. The data comes from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Office. In this colorful animation, the country’s brightness corresponds to its total migration to the U.S. at any given time, while each dot represents 10,000 individuals. It’s interesting to see how immigration patterns have… Read the full story

We had a great time meeting everyone at the NGS 2016 Family History Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida! Between May 4-7, genealogists and family historians from all around the country gathered at the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Boward County Convention Center to enjoy a fascinating array of genealogy lectures and learn more about what’s going on in the world of genealogy. The Geni booth at NGS 2016 before opening day At the Geni booth, we welcomed many people interested in… Read the full story