Sun City, Arizona FamilySearch Center

01/22/2026

So funny and so true! Makes me crazy, along with spelling variations.

Your great-great-grandmother apparently discovered time travel.

Because according to the census records, she aged 15 years in one decade.

Then somehow only aged 8 years in the next decade.

I've spent three hours with a calculator trying to figure out when this woman was actually born.

The 1860 census says she's 25.

The 1870 census confidently lists her as 40.

By 1880, she's decided she's 48.

Madam, that's not how aging works.

But honestly? I respect the chaos.

Back then, your birthday wasn't a national holiday with social media countdowns.

It was just another day you survived.

We obsess over precise dates and digital footprints.

They lived in the beautiful uncertainty of 'sometime around spring when the crops came in.'

Maybe she knew exactly when she was born and just enjoyed messing with the census taker.

Either way, she's keeping genealogists employed 150 years later.

01/21/2026

Good tips to use with Full Text Search.

01/21/2026

This has absolutely happened hundreds of times! Shifting empires, boundaries, country names, etc. can make Eastern European family history challenging. DNA will get you closer, but brace yourself! Thankfully, FamilySearch can offer free Zoom research consultations with their consultants who specialize in these countries. You can even get help with translating old documents.

Your great-great-grandfather's birth certificate says Germany.

You feel accomplished.

Then you realize it's 1840.

Germany didn't exist until 1871.

The town is now in Poland.

It was Prussia at the time.

Maybe.

Actually it might have been the Austrian Empire.

Or a free city.

You Google the village name.

It has seventeen different spellings.

Across four languages.

Three of which use different alphabets.

You order another ancestry DNA kit.

You're 47% Eastern European now.

Last month you were German.

Europe really said "hold my beer" for 200 years straight.

01/20/2026

I actually am a Mayflower descendant, but thankfully, smarter folks than I documented it. Ya gotta have the records!

Every family has one.

The relative who drops Mayflower facts at Thanksgiving.

"We came over with the Pilgrims, you know."

Okay, Aunt Linda. Show me the receipts.

"Well, everyone in the family knows it's true."

That's not how genealogy works.

"Your great-great-grandmother told me herself."

The same one who thought electricity was witchcraft?

Meanwhile I'm over here with ancestry apps and ship manifests.

Turns out we came over in 1987.

From New Jersey.

But sure, let's keep the Mayflower story alive.

Someone's got to keep the family mythology department running.

01/19/2026

Very interesting!

That story about Ellis Island clerks randomly changing immigrant names?

False.

Your ancestors chose to change their names—deliberately, strategically, over years.

The data tells the real story: 57% of Russian immigrants Americanized their first names to get better jobs.

German-Americans became Smith overnight during WWI to avoid violence.

Chinese immigrants bought fake identities to bypass exclusion laws.

Jewish families Germanized then Anglicized. Italians translated.

Each group had a survival strategy.

The 1906 naturalization process even had a checkbox for name changes—this wasn't bureaucratic chaos, it was calculated adaptation...continued in comments 👇

01/11/2026

01/06/2026

You don’t have to be famous to do your family history. You don’t have to be on TV. You don’t have to do DNA although you might, eventually). You don’t have to spend big bucks. Start small, with yourself, then your parents and grandparents. Ask questions. Ask for stories and write them down. Find photos, take photos, scan photos, label photos, tell your own stories. There’s sooo much you can do to participate in family history. Go to your local FmilySearch Center (located in Sun City, Glendale, Phoenix, Mesa, Gilbert, etc.) Tick tock….

01/02/2026

As we celebrate the holidays and keep the traditions passed down through generations, remember this…our loved ones who have crossed over are still with us.

They’re in the cooking and the baking.
In the songs we sing without thinking.
In the games, the laughter, the stories we now tell our children.

What you carry forward didn’t start with you… and it doesn’t end with you.

Watch. Listen. Feel.
They haven’t left us. 🤍✨

12/23/2025

I just used some of my mother’s china for a small dinner party the other night. I haven’t used it in years—why not? I sold my own and kept hers for sentimental reasons, but it was packed away mostly out of sight. It was fun to use it and think of her and her love of pretty things. Tomorrow I might make her banana bread. What gift has been passed on to you?

Some gifts don’t come wrapped. They're passed down through recipes, memories, and traditions that span generations. These timeless gifts, like the ones shared in the Christmas story, connect us to family.

What are your favorite family treasures? Share them below and use the link in the first comment to add your memories to the Tree.

12/22/2025

Yes, please.

LoL

12/21/2025

The Sun City FamilySearch Center will be closed for the holidays and will reopen on Tuesday, January 6th!

We hope you’ll include thoughts and stories about your ancestors in your holiday celebrations. What memories do you have of past Christmases?

In my house we watched Amahl and the Night Visitors on PBS every year. I grew up loving that beautiful, simple story of the crippled shepherd boy who was able to walk because of his faith in the Christ Child. The music is glorious and the story is so moving, it makes me weep. I’ll be playing that music and thinking of my late parents and Christmases past.

Do you have a Christmas memory? Write it down, share it with a grandchild or a friend. Merry Christmas!

12/18/2025