FamilySearch International today announced its collaboration with America250, the national, nonpartisan organization charged by Congress to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. FamilySearch will support America250’s mission to celebrate unity, heritage, and progress by inviting individuals, families, and communities across the nation to remember, discover, and add their own stories to expand America’s collective narrative and connect us all.

FamilySearch’s theme for America’s 250th Anniversary—“Together, We Build America’s Story”—encourages people everywhere to “add what you know” to the free, collaborative FamilySearch Family Tree. This effort ensures that family memories, local histories, and ancestor stories contribute to the broad, diverse fabric of America’s national story.

Select this link below for more information. 

Collaboration with Americas 250 Anniversary

Remembering Deceased Loved Ones This Easter Season 

Easter is the ultimate celebration of life over death and the promise that our stories do not end here. Just as this season calls us to reflect on the past and look forward to the future, our journey through Family History connects us to living stories of those who came before. As we search through the records of our ancestors, we are reminded that they are not just names on a page, but living souls in God's care. This Easter, we reflect on the greatest story ever told, one of redemption, hope, and eternal life. In exploring our Family History, we see how God's grace has blessed the lives of our ancestors, guiding them through trials and blessings alike. Let's celebrate the roots that ground us and the branches that continue to grow by continuing to expand our tree through Family History research and may the miracle of the Resurrection fill your heart with peace today, knowing that we are all part of an Eternal Family Tree, rooted in love.

All of us at the Monterey Family History Center want to wish you a holy and happy Easter filled with the presence of family and the peace of Christ.

Monterey Family History Consultants

Taking A Step Backwards to Move Forward

To Go Back, Sometimes You Go Forward:

When you hit a brick wall in your research, pounding away in the same direction might not be helpful.

Instead, you may need to reverse course and look at more recent records, as explained in this Legacy Tree case study (https://www.legacytree.com/.../legacy-tree-onsite-tips...). In the example, the author was able to find clues in a son's birth record that led to finding the missing parents for the end-of-line ancestor.

To learn more about solving brick walls in research, go to the Family History Guide, Learning Paths, select FamilySearch, Project 4:Discover, and then to Goal 7

(https://www.thefhguide.com/project-4-discover07.html#g) in Project 4: Discover

 

You can open up this Tutorial and just click or tap slides to advance. Try it out and let me know if this helps

Tim Bunney Marina Ward family History Consultant.

Family Search Tutorial

Watch this short video on what family line is important to start with?

Click Below to view

Which Family Line Should I begin Researching? 

Coming Soon

45th Annual Ancestor Roundup 

Mark Your Calendars For This Event

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 

may obtain special price of $15 for this event. 

Contact Valerie Hillesheim for information by January 14, 2026

valerieahill@hotmail.com

The "Family Ordinance Opportunities" is a new experimental prototype tool being designed to make it easier for you to find ancestors who need Temple work. This feature helps you quickly see which relatives, (by family, children, grand children, spouses, etc.) who have ordinances ready or who may need more information before a request can be made. You can then make the request and take it to the Temple, or give it to the Temple or share it with others and family members. Give it try and let us know what you think. 

You can access this tool through the following link ...

Family Ordinance Opportunities

Instruction's on how to use this tool at the following link ...

Using Family Ordinance Opportunities

Tim Bunney - Marina Ward & Temple Family History Leader

A Hodgepodge of Lesser-Known Gems 

Steve Morse gave a  Zoom Presentation on One-Step Webpages 

( A Hodgepodge of Lesser-Known Gems)

This One-Step website started out as an aid for finding passengers in the Ellis Island Database. Shortly afterwards it was expanded to help with searching in the 1930 census. Over the years it has continued to evolve and today includes about 300 web-based tools divided into sixteen separate categories ranging from genealogical searches to astronomical calculations to using bookmarks.

This presentation , as the name implies, is a Hodgepodge of things. There is no rhyme or reason to it , and no logical connection between the items. Each item in the bullet list is self-contained, and solves a particular problem. Some of the problems and their One-Step solutions are shown below ...

• Searching The FamilySearch Record Collections
• Working With Time Intervals
• Searches In Foreign Alphabets
• Table Lookups
• Number Decoding
• Universal Bookmarks
• Geocoding (Latitude and Longitude)
• Rural Areas In THe Census
• When Did?
• Numbers, Large and Small
• Miscellaneous

You can reach this webpage through the link below.

Stevemorse.org

Hey everyone, Registration for RootsTech 2026 begins September 24, 2025. Tune into our special "Live Event" on Registration day. 

Check out the link below for all the latest information. 

RootsTech 2026

How To Create a GEDCOM from FamilySearch

Have you ever needed to save a FamilySearch Tree in a GEDCOM format to use in another Geneology software app like Ancestery. Well I had a member in our Ward who wanted to do this exact thing. I looked up help in FamilySearch and found this ...

"FamilySearch.org does not currently have a feature that allows you to create a GEDCOM from the FamilySearch Family Tree. You will need to use a third-party product or an affiliate genealogy website to create a GEDCOM file."

So I found a work around using the free version of MyHeritage. This is what I did ...

1. I went to the Solutions Gallery link at the bottom of the FamilySearch Home Page.

2. I selected the "MyHeritage App."

3. I then selected "Join For Free"

4. You will probably see that MyHeritage is syncing with FamilySearch to download files. Be patient, this may take some time. Once its done your ready for step 5

5. I'm now in the MyHeritage App. Go to "Family Tree" and select "Manage Tree" you should see the name of the new synced tree from FamilySearch.

6. Now go to the "Actions" column on the far right and select "Export to GEDCOM" for that tree.

7. Your now ready to start exporting. Select the "Export Personal Photos" and "Export Family Tree Photo Album" if you want to add these to your GEDCOM File. Select "Begin The Export"

8. You should see this notification ..."Your GEDCOM File is being generated. This typically takes a few minutes. When it is ready you will receive an email with a link to view it."

9. Go to the email account that you set up in MyHeritage and it should be there.

10. You can now upload your FamilySearch GEDCOM

I tried it and it worked! Even downloaded all my pictures to my Ancestry acct. {Remember you can make your new Tree public or private.}

I hope this works out for those who are interested in saving there tree in another app for others who may not have a FamilySearch account and want to help do research.

Tim

175,000 New Historical Records Released by 

Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland 

175,000 new historical Irish records are now freely available online in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Four Courts blaze that destroyed the Public Record Office of Ireland, and with it seven centuries of Irish history.

Launched three years ago, the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland is now home to over 350,000 records and 250 million words of searchable Irish history. Led by Trinity College Dublin and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, the project brings together historians, computer scientists, archivists, and librarians working to digitally recreate Ireland’s destroyed public record office and its lost collections.

A total of 75 memory institutions across the island of Ireland and around the world are contributing digital images of replacement documents — transcripts and duplicates — to the Virtual Treasury. This includes core partners National Archives of Ireland (NAI), Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), The National Archives UK (TNA), the Irish Manuscripts Commission (IMC) and the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

You can access the website by selecting the "The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland" at the misc links on our page to the left.

What's New at Family Search ?

What Is Family Search Labs ?

Labs is where FamilySearch can share new and potential site features with users before they are released generally. It gives users a chance to see what is being worked on and to provide feedback. All of the products and features on the Labs website are experimental. The products and features are not guaranteed to be available or may not function correctly.

What is an experiment?

Experiments are features that a team within FamilySearch is working on. Often, it is a feature that is just about ready for release. Sharing it in Labs allows developers to see it "in the wild" before it is fully released to the general public.

How it works

After you choose which experiment you want to try, simply move the toggle to on. The experimental features will now be live in your browser. If you decide you don’t want to use the experimental features anymore you can toggle it off.

Since these experiments are not yet live on the site, support is limited. Also keep in mind that some feature functionality may be buggy or incomplete.

Providing Feedback

There is a Feedback button on the left side of the screen on the main Experiments page. Use that button to provide feedback about the Labs experience in general.

There will also be a way to provide feedback within each experiment. Sometimes it will looks the same as the general feedback option. Sometimes it will look different. All feedback will be carefully reviewed. Your opinion is very much appreciated!

Related articles

How do I find FamilySearch Labs?
FamilySearch Blog Article: Introducing FamilySearch Labs

What's New at Roots Tech 2025

Hundreds of sessions from RootsTech 2025 are now available On-Demand. 

You can watch these new sessions and also see what you may have missed from previous years. To explore the sessions just click the link below "Roots Tech 2025 On-Demand Library

Roots Tech 2025 On-Demand Library

Family Search Tech Tip:

Here's a short video on how to invert your background in Family Search. 

Click the video below.

What's New!

We now have a link to all the Family History Books in our Library here at the Monterey Family Search Library. All of these books are available to the public for research on your Ancestors. Just click on the link below and you will have access to our catalog. You can save the PDF for future reference. After you open link you can search by name, date, or place. Give it a try ... you will never know what you might find. Enjoy

 Monterey Family Search Library 

 

LDS Free Geneology Sites

Did you know, as a member of the LDS Church, you have "Free" access to many of the top Genealogical Sites such as ...

* Ancestry

* My Heritage

* Find My Past

* American Ancestors

* Geneant

Just click the link below and get started on an exciting journey through the past.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/access/

THE VEIL IS THIN … WHEN WE "ASK, SEEK, & KNOCK" ...

By the light of God's love, illuminating our minds, through asking, seeking, and knocking, those on the other side in the spirit world are able to experience our longings to find them and connect them to our Family Tree. They will help us with our research, when we take the time to remember and love them and listen to the prompting and feelings.

Let us not give up on our research to find our Family's. They Love You! ... more than you know.