Friends of Layton FamilySearch Center

10/31/2025

Check out the informative classes being offered at the Layton FamilySearch Center this coming week. No reservations are required. You can view all the classes being offered at the Layton FamilySearch Center at the following link:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/layton_utah/classes

10/27/2025

Free Charts and Forms for Research:

There's a form for that! Instead of recreating the wheel in your research, try some of the many free research charts and forms linked from The Family History Guide (https://www.thefhguide.com/project-4-discover.html ). These are courtesy of FamilySearch, Ancestry, Family Tree Magazine, Archives.com, Genealogy Bank, and more.

For additional tips on organizing your research, check out Goal 1 in Project 4: Discover (https://www.thefhguide.com/project-4-discover.html ).

10/24/2025

HAPPY FAMILY HISTORY MONTH IN THE USA!
This designation goes back more than 20 years, just 2 and a half weeks after the traumatic events of 9/11. The bill passed by the United States Senate includes a long list of reasons why October should be Family History Month, including this statement:

Whereas individuals learn about their ancestors who worked so hard and sacrificed so much, their commitment to honor their ancestors’ memory by doing good is increased; Whereas interest in our personal family history transcends all cultural and religious affiliations…

We hope that The Family History Guide can be of help to you as you move along in your family history journey!

10/17/2025

Check out the informative classes being offered at the Layton FamilySearch Center this coming week. No reservations are required. You can view all the classes being offered at the Layton FamilySearch Center at the following link:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/centers/layton_utah/directors/classes

10/17/2025

Finding the Town of Origin - 16 Ways:

For ancestors born abroad, census records are often not available for tracing the town of origin. What other avenues are open to find the information you need?

This interview from Lisa Louise Cooke (https://lisalouisecooke.com/2022/09/28/ancestors-town-origin/) illustrates 16 types of records that you can use to find clues that will lead you to towns of origin, such as ship manifests, alien registrations, county histories, military records and more.

Learn more about researching U.S. immigration records in Goal D1 of the United States page (https://www.thefhguide.com/project-9-united-statesd1.html ).

10/13/2025

Getting to Know State Census Records:

In between the regular 10-year federal censuses, many states also conducted state censuses of their residents.

Ancestry Academy has a (https://www.ancestryacademy.com/videos/state-censuses) helpful overview video to get you started with state census records. The video also includes census record examples and how they tie into other records for research clues.

For more about U.S. state censuses, see Goal C1 of the United States page (https://www.thefhguide.com/project-9-united-statesc1.html ).

10/06/2025

Finding an Ancestor Burial Location:

Sometimes it can be a challenge to discover where a particular ancestor was buried.

As explained in this Ancestry Academy video (https://www.ancestryacademy.com/written-in-stone-researching-in-cemeteries/videos/finding-where-your-ancestor-is-buried) narrated by Amy Johnson Crow, you can use a variety or resources to pin down the location, including death records, online cemetery records such as Find A Grave, offline records such as libraries and local cemeteries, etc.

For more information about using cemetery records in research, see Goal B6 in the United States page (https://www.thefhguide.com/project-9-united-statesb6.html ).

09/30/2025

Finding Funeral Home Records:

Funeral home records are a largely overlooked resource in family history.

As LegacyTree Genealogy points out (https://www.legacytree.com/blog/finding-ancestor-funeral-home-records), private funeral homes often record a wealth of information about deceased ancestors, which can verify death record information or act as an alternative source when a death record can't be found. The article also has tips on finding and contacting funeral homes.

Learn more about funeral records in Goal B5 of the United States page (https://www.thefhguide.com/project-9-united-statesb5.html ).

09/28/2025

https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/familysearch-merge-duplicates?cid=EM-00048621&lid=cgq1zueckxj8

If you find multiple profiles for the same person in your family tree, learn how to merge duplicates in FamilySearch.