Genealogy Research Tips and
Sahyun Library Updates

Here’s how the National Archives are working with volunteers, AI, and FamilySearch to transcribe Revolutionary War Pension Files and make them available to researchers. Read about it:  The Great Transcription Challenge Posted by Rosa Avolio, Webmaster

Courtesy of Michael John Neill’s Tip of the Day post “Adjacent in Census or Tax Lists May Not Mean Next Door” dated 8-June-2025. Those names that were immediately before and after your ancestor on a census or a tax list probably lived relatively near your ancestor, but do not assume that they shared a property

The Summer edition of Ancestors West has been published and is available for your enjoyment on the Society Publications page of our website. Read stories shared by our members of their ancestors’ remarkable achievements in this issue. Don’t forget that every issue of Ancestors West includes an index of surnames referenced within the publication. You

I was watching a couple of Amy Johnson Crow’s videos this evening and came across this one and had to share it. She gives great advice and instruction on using PERSI (Peridical Source Index). After you watch her video and learn how to use the index and you find a publication you want to see

Connie Knox from GenealogyTV on YouTube interviewed several people at the National Genealogical Society (NGS) Family History Conference in Louisville, KY last month. One of her guests was Aimee Cross from Camarillo and fellow member of the Ventura County Genealogical Society. Watch what Aimee said about SBCGS here. Thanks Aimee for the recognition. Submitted by

“Ancestry announces the Beta launch of its new document transcription feature. This innovative tool can empower Ancestry World Explorer/World Deluxe members to easily read and preserve handwritten documents like journal entries and letters from the past.” The document transcription feature is available on any of the Ancestry platforms (app, mobile, or desktop website) by uploading

If you missed Mark Lowe’s webinar on Early Migration and Settlement Patterns you missed a good one. Mark’s five-page handout is packed with resources. Members can view the webinar recording and download the handout for a limited time in the Webinar Archive.  Don’t miss our next webinar with James Beidler on Sunday, September 28th at

“Ancestry does allow users to download their family trees, but you won’t get everything you hoped for. The included backup works by converting the tree into a GEDCOM and – while GEDCOMs include all of the data, text and source citations from a family tree – the format doesn’t support media, such as digital records

This is a blog post by the Society of American Archivists that could be helpful to genealogists with Scottish roots:   In celebration of our 50th anniversary year, the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library is pleased to announce the launch of the Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives’ first publicly available archives catalog. The Van Gorden-Williams Library & Archives

Do you know that you can filter our events calendar to view specific categories of events? For instance, highlight Classes, SIGs, L&L from the Show dropdown list to display only those events. After logging into the website, members can also filter the calendar to display Classroom and Woodward room reservations for non-society events, Business Meetings,

Courtesy of Michael John Neill’s Tip of the Day post “Pretending You Were Paying for Help” dated 9-May-2025. Even if you are not inclined to have a professional researcher help you with your genealogy problem, pretend that you were. What would you ask them? What would you share with them? Think about: What is your specific problem?