Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

Do you come from Irish ancestry? Well, today it doesn't matter because everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

I have been teaching a family history class at Church these past few Sunday's and so ancestry is on my mind a lot lately! With that in mind, I must tell you about some of the new features you can find on the LDS FamilySearch website. As always, FamilySearch is a free website for anyone to use!

• Billions of new records have been added from every country in the world!
• New help tutorials have been added for all skill levels. You can find relevant topics whether you are a beginner or an expert!
• Are you still stumped on what to do? Call a Family History Consultant and ask for help! The call is toll free! AND you can call from almost anywhere in the world! (There is a Call Us link on the Home Help Page that lists all the numbers available from around the world.) Here is a screenshot of some of the numbers on that page. I would give you a direct link but the list of phone numbers is a pop up.

• Different ways to display your family tree. FamilySearch now offers 3 different ways you can display your family tree.
• If you have your family tree recorded in Ancestry.com (or another commercial service), you can import your information to FamilySearch! (Save the monthly fees you spend at those other services! How frugal is that!)

I have found over 550 people using the tools at FamilySearch. Remember, this has all been done while sitting on the couch in my family room!  No need to go to the library or anywhere else for that matter! My husband's tree goes back to the 1100's! I haven't broken past 1700 on my side yet, but I am working on it! It is a bit of a challenge to search for records in another language from your computer at home, but it isn't impossible! There are lots of tutorials on the help page geared towards searching in specific countries!

As always, you do not need to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the FamilySearch website. You don't even need to create a login account if you don't want to! You can still use the Search screen to find your ancestors and then record the information you find on paper or any other software program.

I highly encourage everyone to cruise the pages at FamilySearch and try your hand at finding your own ancestors!