The Formidable Genealogist

09/23/2025

Sometimes old postcards can hint at your family's origins. There are many postcards that we have of Youngstown, Ohio. It wasn't until I started researching my family that I discovered that my great grandfather was born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1865. His family was in Washington, Iowa by 1870 and he lived his adult life in South Dakota and Colorado.

09/23/2025

We have exciting news on the War of 1812 pension files! We have finished digitizing all files for surnames beginning with "U" and "V" and have begun our work on the "W" files. Explore this amazing collection here: https://f3.social/6xyt

09/22/2025

Yay!

🚨 RECORD DROP ALERT!

What if the key to your family's story just went LIVE?

📜 3.6 million civil records from Italy 🇮🇹
🪦 300,000 cemetery records from Chile 🇨🇱
⛪ Nearly 300,000 church records from Portugal 🇵🇹

Your ancestors are waiting to be found.
It’s all there. And it’s all FREE.

Find the link in the first comment!

09/22/2025

Just imagine the dust.

09/21/2025

I am so close to being done with this guide. Even if you're terrible with technology, this will show you very simply and concisely how to use ChatGPT for genealogy. I'm up to 94 pages and have a few more to go.

I'll be releasing it this week with a launch sale. Want to make sure you don't miss the sale? Sign up for my email list on my website.

https://www.theformidablegenealogist.com/

09/21/2025

I've inherited a lot of these old postcards in my family and meticulously scanned them all.

Can you imagine driving hairpin curves in a car like this?

09/20/2025

Cordially yours, Karl E. Mundt.

I found this postcard among my family's pictures. I had no idea who he was. Apparently Karl was a senator from South Dakota from 1948 until 1973.

09/19/2025

Someone was thinking ahead and took this photo in 1953 on the day that my great grandpa's farm was sold. Charlie Smith's sign from his barn that you can see in this photo still exists on the site of his farm in a modern barn at Geddes, South Dakota.

09/19/2025

Follow my friend and colleague Julie. She always posts excellent resources.

The Workhouse is a website all about the workhouses in the UK. The website’s creator, Peter Higginbotham, is well versed in all things related to UK workhouses. He’s written several books on the subject and labored over this website since 2000. If you have any UK ancestors who experienced workhouse life, be sure to visit this site. Here, you can learn about the poor laws and the poor law unions throughout the UK, what life was like in the workhouse, rules governing the workhouse, and other institutions such as Salvation Army shelters and common lodging houses, as well as various record types that can be helpful in your research.

Head on over and check it out 👇
https://www.workhouses.org.uk

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09/18/2025

Thanks to the 187 of you signed up for Tuesday night's Foundations of Online Genealogy class! The on-demand version is now up in my website shop for $15.

Don't miss the rest of my live classes. All $15 each. These are the final live classes I will be offering. The true value is in the 1+ hours of Q&A after the class. I love playing Stump Jen with your excellent questions.

https://www.theformidablegenealogist.com/category/all-products

09/18/2025

My Grandpa Robert McFarlane on the right with his brother, Claude. I love it when people handily pose in the same position in multiple photos. The older photo would be around 1922 and the later one around 1985.

09/17/2025

Thanks to the 187 of you who registered for last night's Foundations of Online Genealogy class. It was a marathon 2.5 hours, but I made it through 1+ hours of awesome Q&A from attendees.

Unable to attend the class? I made an updated recording of it today and it is now live on my website store in the on-demand webinar section for just $15. 1 hour and 13 minutes of a fire hose of information. Grab it below.

https://www.theformidablegenealogist.com/category/all-products

Did you already purchase the previous version called Introduction to Online Genealogy? Well, this new recording is a replacement of the same class so you already have access to the new one.