FamilySearch Family Tree logo: Wikimedia Commons Why Not? Many of us hesitate to use the FamilySearch Family Tree (FSFT) because we don't have complete control over the profiles of those who've died, nor to whom they are linked. These are valid points. However, if each user carefully links all the important sources to each profile and writes informative "reason statements" when adding them, the profiles are rarely changed. Instead, they are found by other relatives who can attach records and images you may not have access to, such as family photos, Bible records, etc.  The FSFT is different from sites where you can build your own tree, such as Ancestry.com or in software on your own computer or on paper.  World Tree + Records It is a "world tree," where the goal is to have one, and only one profile for each person ever born, linked together as families. Wikitree and Geni are the two other world family trees; together they are smaller than the FSFT, which is ...

  Image by  Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke  from  Pixabay   There is no better feeling in genealogy research than breaking through! Especially when the "wall" has been standing for a long time. I've been working on my son-in-law's tree since he gave me the information I needed to begin. The White side of his family was reasonably easy, but the Black side was full of roadblocks, and not just the big one before the 1870 US Census: slavery and the dreaded tick marks. Courtesy https://thenounproject.com/   Fortunately, I'm stubborn! I'm part of the Wikitree US Black Heritage project, and every month they run a contest called the Connecting Challenge . This has been a spur to get those connections made! And I very much wanted to connect Jason to his great-grandmother.  I knew her name, Rosalie Dubuclet , the name of her first husband, Amadee Alexander , and when he died, 1920. I knew roughly when she was born in Louisiana, but who were her parents? Whil...