https://lineagelibrary.com/The free family history research guide: new and updated guides.en-ushttps://lineagelibrary.com/learn/french-canadian-ancestors/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/french-canadian-ancestors/French-Canadian families can often be traced to the 1600s through some of the best church records in North America. How to use Quebec's parish registers, Canadian censuses and the tools built for this research.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/english-scottish-ancestors/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/english-scottish-ancestors/British records are rich, well indexed and often free to search. How to use civil registration, the 1841–1921 censuses and parish registers in England, Wales and Scotland.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/scandinavian-ancestors/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/scandinavian-ancestors/Norwegian, Swedish and Danish records are among the best in the world, and many are free online. How patronymic surnames and farm names work, and where to find church books, censuses and emigration records.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/polish-ancestors/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/polish-ancestors/Poland didn't exist as a country for more than a century, so your ancestor may have been recorded as Russian, Prussian or Austrian. How to find the right parish, and the free indexes and archives that make Polish research possible.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/italian-ancestors/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/italian-ancestors/Italian civil records are some of the best in the world, and many are free online. How to find your ancestor's comune, use the Antenati portal, read the records, and what to know about citizenship by descent.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/jewish-eastern-europe/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/jewish-eastern-europe/How to find your Jewish ancestors' town when maps and names have changed, and the records and research communities, from JewishGen to Yizkor books, that make Eastern European Jewish research possible.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/hispanic-ancestors/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/hispanic-ancestors/Mexican and Hispanic family history can often be traced back centuries in Catholic parish and civil records, many of them free. How names work, where the records are, and how to bridge the border.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/twentieth-century-research/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/twentieth-century-research/Recent ancestors can be surprisingly hard to find, because privacy rules close many records. The sources that are open, and how to use them for grandparents and great-grandparents.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/native-american-ancestors/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/native-american-ancestors/How to research Native American ancestors using federal records such as the Dawes Rolls and Indian Census Rolls, tribal records and other sources, and how to approach this research with care.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/quaker-records/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/quaker-records/Quakers kept some of the most detailed records in early America. How their meetings were organized, what their minutes and registers contain, and where to find them.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/old-dates-calendar/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/old-dates-calendar/Why George Washington had two birthdays, what "10 February 1731/32" means, how to read Quaker dates like "5th day of 3rd month," and how to calculate a birth date from an age at death.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/nicknames-and-naming-patterns/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/nicknames-and-naming-patterns/Old nicknames that look nothing like the formal name, traditional naming patterns that can predict grandparents' names, and other naming customs that can help or trip you up.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/revolutionary-war-lineage-societies/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/revolutionary-war-lineage-societies/How to find a Revolutionary War patriot in your tree, the records that prove his service, and how to document your line for the DAR, SAR, Mayflower Society and other lineage societies.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/civil-war-ancestors/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/civil-war-ancestors/More than three million men served in the Civil War. How to find out whether your ancestor served, and how to find his service records, pension file and the stories of his regiment.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/institutional-records/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/institutional-records/Ancestors who spent time in a poorhouse, asylum, prison, hospital or soldiers' home left records most researchers never look for. Where to find them, and the privacy rules that govern them.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/orphans-and-guardianship/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/orphans-and-guardianship/Children who lost a parent often left a trail of court, orphanage and placement records. How to find guardianships, apprenticeships, orphanage records and orphan train placements.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/divorce-records/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/divorce-records/Divorce was more common in the past than many families admit, and divorce files can be rich in detail. Where divorce records are kept, how to find them, and what else to check.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/mortality-schedules/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/mortality-schedules/For four decades, census takers also listed everyone who had died in the previous year. What the mortality schedules record, where to find them, and why they matter for deaths that left no other trace.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/old-causes-of-death/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/old-causes-of-death/What the causes of death on old death certificates, burial records and mortality schedules usually meant, why they're often vague, and what they can tell you about your family.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/adoption-research/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/adoption-research/How adoptees and their descendants can search for birth family using original birth certificates, court records, registries and, most powerfully, DNA.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/unexpected-dna-results/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/unexpected-dna-results/DNA tests regularly reveal unknown siblings, adoptions and different biological parents. How to confirm what the results mean, take care of yourself, and decide what to do next.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/contacting-dna-matches/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/contacting-dna-matches/Most DNA match messages go unanswered. How to write a short, friendly message that gets a reply, what to share and not share, and what to do when no one answers.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/sorting-dna-matches/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/sorting-dna-matches/Thousands of DNA matches become manageable once you sort them by grandparent. How shared matches, the Leeds Method and clustering tools work, and why close relatives sometimes land on the "wrong" side.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/shared-cm-explained/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/shared-cm-explained/Every DNA match comes with a number of centimorgans. What a cM is, what the amount of shared DNA says about a relationship, and why the predicted relationship can be wrong.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/writing-family-history/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/writing-family-history/Years of research don't mean much if no one can understand them. How to turn names and dates into a readable family history, from a single ancestor's story to a printed book.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/asking-for-help-online/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/asking-for-help-online/Volunteers on forums, Facebook groups and Reddit solve hard problems every day. How to write a question that gets answered, where to post it, and how to protect living relatives' privacy.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/genealogy-software-backups/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/genealogy-software-backups/If your tree lives only on a website, you don't fully control it. How to keep your own copy with desktop software and GEDCOM files, and how to back up years of work.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/preserving-family-papers/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/preserving-family-papers/How to store, handle and digitize family documents and photographs so they last another hundred years, without expensive equipment.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/dating-old-photos/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/dating-old-photos/A box of unlabeled photos is a puzzle you can solve. How to date a photo from its type, the photographer's studio, clothing and hairstyles, and how to work out who's in it.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/coat-of-arms/https://lineagelibrary.com/learn/coat-of-arms/Mugs and plaques sold with a "family crest" for your surname aren't what they seem. How heraldry actually works, and how to find out whether an ancestor really had arms.Tue, 27 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000