Yearly tasks share and gather family history

The MyHeritage Blog recommends doing the following family history activities at least once a year:

1. Share what you have found: Sharing with family members will perhaps encourage other family members to provide their own documents and information. This could help add missing details such as their parents, children and missing birth dates.

2. If you have an online family site, inviting relatives to your site will allow them to see the data and could encourage them to contribute missing information. All you would need is their name and email address.

3. For older family members who possibly do not have internet access, print out a family chart and visit with them about their relatives. This technique could also generate family stories and possibly provide new family photos to include in the family history.

4. Develop the habit of always backing up data regularly and storing the data in a different location in case of computer failure.

5. Pick one missing piece of information and focus on finding it; for example you might need the names of a paternal grandfather or trace additional generations of your surname.

If you have a family tree on MyHeritage or use its Family Tree Builder software, the feature Smart Match alerts you when someone in your tree appears to match a person in another MyHeritage user tree. Be aware that the basic family site allows a limited amount of information and when reached, the website requires a yearly fee.

MyHeritage also adds new data sets regularly to its collection and continually updates other data sets. For more information, go to its blog at, then select the Historical Records category.