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What It Was Really Like To Find My Biological Father: love and persistence find a way

The following is a personal account of one of our clients who shares her experience of finding her biological father. You can read her story below, and you can also watch her tell her story here on our YouTube channel. 

My name is Tiffany. This is the story of my journey to finding my father. 

I am 49, and I've never known my biological father or his family. My mom was 17 when she got pregnant, and they only dated or hung out for a couple of weeks; she went back to visit family in New Mexico, and that's when she realized she was pregnant. 

When she came home to Salt Lake, he was gone, and she could not find him. She went to where he was living with his friends. He was 19, and she asked where he was and his last name. They gave my mom the wrong name – Guy Lombardo. And so my whole life, I thought I was Italian, and I've been looking for the wrong person.

At one point, when phone books still existed, we would look through them and call all the Guy Lambardos we could find to ask if they were in Salt Lake at that time. We had no success, so I told my husband my story, and he said, “I'm going to hire this company to find your dad.”

Why We Hired a Genealogy Team To Find My Biological Father

And I said, “No, it's okay. I don't want to. I've had all these years of being let down, and I am in a good space where I don't want to be let down anymore.”

I was okay with not having my dad in my life.

He said, “Nope. I've already paid for it, and we're doing this.”

And I thought, oh no, now all this scary stuff and emotions are coming up. So we hired Legacy Tree Genealogists, and I started working with Sheri as my project manager. She's fantastic, and I kept bugging her for answers. We did the DNA testing, which I didn't have when I was 20 years old and 16 years old, trying to find my dad. 

Using Genetic Genealogy to Find Tiffany's Biological Father

We did the DNA work, and I kept bugging Sheri. “Do you have any information yet? I just want to know something.” 

She said, “You have to wait. You have to wait.” It took a couple of months, and then I learned that my dad's side of the family is German.

And I told my mom, “I'm German. I'm not Italian.”  His last name was blank in the results, and it wasn't Lombardo. I remember when I first saw my genealogy tree, and I saw a cousin on my dad's side. That was the first time I'd seen anything from my dad's side. Seeing my tree and seeing a cousin there was surreal. 

This cousin was on 23andMe. I messaged him on 23andMe and said, “I just did my genealogy, and I see your name on my tree.” A while later, he responded to me and shared my whole genealogy. The tree had my dad and my uncle. It also showed that I have a grandma alive, and she's 90.

I have a 94-year-old grandpa, and I never in my wildest dreams thought I would have a grandma and a grandpa. I also have a sister, and she's younger than me. 

Getting all this information was overwhelming and beautiful simultaneously, and I didn't know what to do with it. So, I emailed my new family. Sheri said they could take the next step, but I wanted to do it personally. 

The genetic genealogy team assigned to Tiffany’s project reviewed her DNA test results and found that:

Your 23andMe ethnicity estimates include an average of 72 percent French and German; 10 percent British and Irish; and 7 percent Scandinavian. It is apparent from the high estimate that your French and German heritage is both paternal and maternal in origin, given that we inherit 50 percent of our autosomal DNA from each parent. Furthermore, it appears your biological father is likely almost entirely of French and German heritage.

How To Contact Your Previously Unknown Biological Family Members

I emailed all of the people. I knew where my dad lived—he and my grandma lived in California. I told them, “I did my genealogy, and you guys came up with it. I want to find out how we're related.” I knew how we were related but didn't want to scare them…

When it comes to contacting biological relatives for the first time, the Legacy Tree Genealogist team recommends these resources the following article that include suggestions and scripts for contacting previously unknown, biological family:
How Do I Contact My Birth Parent or Sibling?

…And they never responded. Nobody responded.  Finally, my cousin responded, and he said, “Can I call you?” And I said, “Oh, that would be wonderful. I get to talk to my family.”

I talked to him for two hours on the phone, and he said, this is the best news. We're so excited to meet you. I will call your dad's wife and tell her about you. 

He called back and said, “She wants nothing to do with you, and they want you to stay away. You're kind of ruining their family. So they know about you, but you need to stay away.”

I was shocked. I was like, okay, I understand this is hard for someone to accept, especially when they're married and have children. And my dad's been married to his wife for 40 years and then I come along. And so I respected that, but then I still kept emailing stuff.

I wanted my dad to respond and say, “Yes, I'm your dad, but I'm not ready for this.”

But he wouldn't respond. 

Meeting Your Biological Father For the First Time Isn't Always Easy

I remember sitting there and just crying. I had all of his information, and they didn't get to do that to me. So, I booked a trip to California. I said, “I've just got to do this.” My husband came with me, and we got a hotel and a rental car, but once we arrived, I had a complete panic attack.

I thought, “I can't do this. I can't do this because what if he doesn't want me, which is a possibility, or what if he's not a great guy?” There are all the what-ifs that you hold on to. But I had to complete my journey. 

We went shopping for hours and I kept walking around looking at the men around me thinking, “What if that's my dad?”  I'd never seen a picture of him. I didn't even know what he looked like. And I thought,  “What if that guy walking by me is my dad?”

Finally, I said, “I've just got to do this.” We drove to the house, and I knocked on the door. The lady [my dad's wife] wouldn't open the door. She said, “Who is this?” And I said, “It's Tiffany.” She screamed and yelled at me for about 15 minutes, and I was just bawling.

She would not open the door, so I just said, “Please open the door. I am a mom, too. I understand your pain, but just give me a minute. I'm a hugger and I'm a lover, and if you'll just let me hug you, it's going to be okay.”

She said, “If you want to meet your dad, he's outside.”

I went out there and didn't see anyone. I told my husband, “Let's go. I can't do this. I'm done. Let's go home.” 

My husband said, “I think your dad's in that car over there.”

By then, I was just done and didn't want to meet him anymore. 

But my husband encouraged me and said, “Just go and talk to him.”

And so I knocked on the car window, and it was my dad.

He looked up at me, and he wasn't super happy. He said some mean things, and I was crying uncontrollably. There were more emotions than I've ever dealt with in my life. 

He finally got out of the car and said, “What do you want from me? Do you want child support? What are you trying to do to my family?”

And I said, “I don't want anything. I just want to know that you're my dad, and you didn't respond to me. So I had to do this to bring closure, and I can leave now, and I'm okay.”

He said, “Well, you rented a car, you flew here, and you got a hotel. This is a big deal to you.”

I told him, of course, it's a big deal. You're my dad, and I've been looking for you my whole life. 

And he said, “Okay, do you want to go to the coffee shop?”

A Coffee Date With Your Biological Father

And so he got in my car, and the whole time, I'm thinking, my dad is in my car, something I have always wanted. We went to the coffee shop and didn't know what to say. It was overwhelming for him. It was overwhelming for me. And then I took him back to his house.

He said, “I don't know how to do this. I don't know how to have two families, and you probably won't hear from me again. I need you to stop contacting the family. I need you to go away.”

I went back to the hotel and just cried. I emailed Sheri at Legacy Tree and said it didn't go well, but I met him, and I can put closure to it now. After I flew home, I probably stayed in bed for a week because I was so sad.

When There's No Response

I would still send him texts and invite him to go skiing or come visit. I wanted him to come visit me so I could show him that I wasn't out for money. I didn't want anything from him. I just wanted a dad, and I wanted to get to know him. I messaged him and messaged him, and he never responded for a year. 

I told myself I'd given him a year, and now I will try to meet my grandma. I deserve to meet my grandma. And what if she's not going to be here much longer? I'm a to-do list girl, and I put out my to-do list for January of 2023 -I'm going to meet my grandma. If I have to knock on her door, I will knock on her door, but I will meet her.

The Gift of Grandmothers

In December 2022, I went on a trip to Hawaii with my daughter. I was sitting out on the hotel patio, looking at the ocean in the rain. Suddenly, my phone rang. I had my grandma's phone number saved in my phone, and it was my grandmother. I answered it, and she said, “Tiffany, this is your grandmother.”

She said, “Your dad just told me about you after a year.  He had your business card in his wallet. He pulled it out and said, “I need to tell you something, Mom.”

When he pulled out my business card, and she saw I was a real estate agent, she asked him, “Are you buying a house? What's the story? What's going on?”

He said, “This is my daughter.”

She said, “I just started crying, and I want to meet you. Your dad is so proud of you. He has told everybody about you this past year, and he wants to meet you again. Will you come to California in January and meet him?”

I was crying so hard—it was just the sweetest thing. After we had talked on the phone for a few weeks, I flew to meet my grandma in California. 

We truly connected over the phone, absolutely connected. I took her 48 long-stemmed red roses for all the years that I missed with her. As I came down the escalator, she was standing there so beautiful and sweet. We hugged and hugged, and she had a neighbor drive her to the airport so we could sit in the backseat and just talk the entire time. We were an instant family. 

She is identical to me, and I am definitely her granddaughter. We have the same story of life, the same number of kids, and almost the same life history. She showed me around town and took me to meet her friends. She wanted time with me before my dad got there to meet me. And she was just the sweetest. 

Then, my dad came to town with my uncle, and we met for the first time again. It was a pretty fantastic weekend. We connected right away, and my dad would just sit there and cry, and I would cry. It was this weekend of crying, and we all connected so closely, and it really proves that blood is so much stronger than you think. 

The Unexpected Things

The first night, we went back to the hotel, and my dad sat in my room, and we just chatted until two in the morning. The next morning we both got up early and we went for a walk. And we walk fast. He said, “You are my daughter. You do everything I do. We sit, and we shake our legs. All of our movements are the same. We walk fast. You're identical to me.”

He said, “I must tell you, the best birthday present I've ever received is you. I was 19, and I had never been with anybody. It was my 19th birthday when you were conceived. I still circled a calendar in red on the day I was with your mom. And when I found out about your birthday and who you are, I knew exactly the day. I knew you were my daughter, and I couldn't be prouder to have you as my daughter.”

We had a great weekend with my grandma and my uncle. Three weeks later, my uncle and my dad came to Utah, and we went on a 10-day skiing trip there. They stayed with me, and we went on hikes. 

When I first met my dad, and he didn't want anything to do with me, I had this vision that we were going to go camping together and sit by a fire one day. We're going to talk all day. I kept that vision in my head the entire year that he didn't want to talk to me. And now we have sat by a fire probably five times and been on three Moab trips. That vision came true. 

I ran a marathon in the Redwood Forest, and he came and supported me. We traveled for a week in Northern California, and I got to spend my first birthday with my dad. My grandma flew me back to California, and we spent my birthday with my grandma and my dad for the first time. 

My grandma is my favorite person in the world. She tells everybody about us and will say, “Thank you for never giving up on us because I had no idea. You're my first granddaughter.” 

She's 90, and we're both sad we didn't get to spend all these years together because we're identical, and she has breast cancer now. I feel so fortunate that I hired Legacy Tree Genealogists to find my family before it was too late.

I traveled to California a few weeks ago, stayed with my grandma for a week, and took her to radiation every day. We had the best talks, and she's amazing. I love her to pieces, and she tells me, “I'm doing this radiation for you. I don't want to leave you yet.” She is just the spunkiest, greatest lady ever. 

My grandpa lives in Mississippi, and I will fly out and meet him in February. My dad's wife and daughter won't talk to me, but time will go on, and we'll see what happens. 

Encouragement For Anyone Looking For Their Biological Family

I encourage anyone in the same situation, or whatever your situation is, to never give up because you just don't know. There are still some struggles. There's still the other family, and he has another daughter, and there's still some of that stuff that is not perfect, but it's amazing. 

I don't know what I would've done without knowing my family. It's been the most incredible year of my life, and I honestly owe it all to Legacy Tree. I know it took all of us to get to this point, but I'm so grateful and can't wait to see what is coming.

Advice About Finding Your Birth Family From Legacy Tree Genealogists:

Be patient, this can be shocking news and it may take some time for them to process. Give them time. If they never respond, we are so sorry they are not ready to respond, and we understand that may be difficult and different from what you hoped for. We hope knowing who your biological family is helpful to have answers the questions you have had for so many years. We have had a bio family who refused to believe they had a sibling and that their parent had another child, but they did respond. That was hard, but hopefully with time, they were able to process and accept their new sibling. The typical response is excitement to meet a new sibling and see how much they have in common.

If you'd like to work with Legacy Tree Genealogists to help you find and contact your biological family, contact us anytime.

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Hire a Genealogist: Why, When, and How

Why would you hire a genealogist? Many people who are interested in finding out more about their family and ancestors find great joy in doing their own genealogical research. While the family history research journey can be quite thrilling, it can also be very frustrating and sometimes devastating.  Why devastating?. For those who are determined to find their family members, living or passed on, hiring a professional genealogist can bring back a sense of joy and peace of mind as you work with a team to accurately fill out your family tree one ancestor at a time.

WHY WOULD YOU HIRE A GENEALOGIST?

DEFINE YOUR GENEALOGY GOALS

Whenever you consider hiring a genealogist, you’ll want to have a clear goal in mind. If you simply want to fully complete your family tree, you’re not yet clear on your goal! Completing a family tree cannot be accomplished in one lifetime. But you can definitely create small goals of accurately documenting one ancestor at a time to help the coming generations continue the genealogical journey with confidence and joy.

Here are some questions you might ask yourself as you consider hiring a professional genealogist:

  • Do I want depth or breadth? Would I rather know as much as possible (biographical details) about one specific ancestor, or would I prefer to accurately connect 3-4 generations?
  • Do I want a family narrative or simply an accurate family diagram?
  • Do I need help understanding my DNA test results? Do I want to prove a biological relationship, or am I confused about my ethnicity results?
  • Do I have a blank spot in my family history that’s preventing me from moving on with my own genealogical research?
  • Do I need help organizing all of my family history documents and records? 

These are great questions to bring to a genealogist. Of course, there are thousands of possibilities for your genealogy research, but starting with clear and simple objectives will produce the best results.

When you hire a genealogist at Legacy Tree Genealogists, you’re hiring a team of professionals who have seen hundreds of scenarios that give them insight into possible strategies and resources that you might not even know about. We also have access to a network of translators and onsite specialists in countries worldwide who can help achieve your genealogy goals.

WHEN WOULD YOU HIRE A GENEALOGIST?

Many people who begin their family history research are quickly overwhelmed, and want to verify what documentation they already have to ensure they continue down an accurate path. How do you know if you have all the information you need to verify your relationship with ancestors who have been gone for generations? As soon as you start to feel overwhelmed, that’s a very good time to hire a genealogist!

For those who are deeper into their family history research, they might find that there’s one or two generations that seem to “disappear,” and it’s difficult to find any official documentation on them for many reasons including: immigration, class status, or by simply being a woman there isn’t much written about them. 

In the genealogy world, we often refer to “brick walls”–those maddening mysteries in your family history that no one seems to know anything about. When you hit a brick wall, it’s time to hire a genealogist! Some brick walls you might experience:

LANGUAGE TRANSLATION OF GENEALOGICAL RECORDS, DOCUMENTS, LETTERS, ETC.

Many people hire a genealogist because they don’t know their ancestors’ language, and are struggling to accurately translate letters or vital records. Language evolves quickly, and if you’re reading through records from a few generations back, you could also struggle to understand a language that is easier to translate in modern usage. For example, German has evolved quite a bit in the last couple hundred years, and it takes an expert to translate older versions of the German language.

There’s also languages that don’t use western Roman lettering, such as Asian and Indigenous languages. Unless you take the time to learn Japanese, Chinese, or any character-based languages, you’ll need a professional genealogist to help you with translation. 

YOUR FAMILY’S VITAL RECORDS WERE LOST IN NATURAL DISASTERS OR WARTIME DESTRUCTION

There are countries that experienced natural disasters (floods, fires, etc.), or were bombarded by wartime aggressions that destroyed cultural artifacts, including vital records. This is the case for Ireland in the nineteenth century, and for records destroyed throughout Eastern Europe during World War II. When you’re looking for ancestors in these times and places, it’s not hopeless. It may be more difficult to find any documentation for them, but you’d be surprised what a professional can dig up!

DNA ANALYSIS FOR BIOLOGICAL FAMILY

If you were adopted, and want help finding and potentially contacting your biological family members, you’ll want to hire a professional genetic genealogist. They can help you put together your DNA test results as well as pursue traditional genealogical documentation that will help you find your bio family. It can also be an emotional roller-coaster, and having a professional genealogist guide you through the process is a game-changer. 

You can also use a genetic genealogist to help you use DNA evidence to accurately identify some of your ancestors a few generations back. Genetic genealogy often goes hand-in-hand with traditional genealogy, and it’s incredibly helpful to have someone who knows how to bring it all together in one clarifying package. 

HOW DO YOU HIRE A GENEALOGIST?

There are individual genealogists who work independently and have areas of expertise, and there are genealogy firms, like Legacy Tree Genealogists, who have experts all over the world and access to a professional network of onsite researchers to help when digital research hits a dead end. Whether you hire an individual or a genealogy firm, you’ll want to take the following steps:

VERIFY THEIR GENEALOGY CREDENTIALS

The two primary credentials for genealogists that you’ll come across are:

  • AG: Accredited Genealogist®
  • CG: Certified Genealogist®

An Accredited Genealogist (AG) is a professional who has passed several levels of testing through ICAPGen (The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists). This accreditation is geography-specific–meaning that someone with an AG after their name has tested for at least one region within the United States or another region in the world. Make sure to ask genealogists which region they are accredited for.

A Certified Genealogist (CG) requires similar expertise and testing, with a slightly different focus. CG’s are not geography-specific, but allows a genealogist to display their ability to interpret documents and resolve contradictory evidence. This interpretation skill is often what people hire a genealogist to help them do.

LEARN ABOUT THEIR PROCESS AND TIMELINES

Every genealogist has different timelines and capacities. An individual genealogist might have the specific expertise you’re looking for, but might not be able to communicate with you regularly or have your project complete within a few months. Ask how often they will communicate with you on their progress, when and how to ask questions and deliver more information, and when they will be able to complete your project.

A genealogy firm has one to multiple genealogy researchers working on your project as well as a project manager who communicates regularly with you, and ensures that the project stays on track and is finished within a reasonable timeline. 

SCHEDULE A QUOTE OR CONSULTATION 

Most individuals and firms will provide you with a free quote or consultation to answer any questions you might have as you describe your genealogy hopes and goals. 

INQUIRE ABOUT COSTS

Ask as many questions as you need to get a good idea of how they will spend their time researching and organizing your genealogy project. With individuals, it’s pretty straightforward as they either bill hourly or per project. A genealogy firm may cost  more, but you have an entire team working towards project completion to ensure timely reporting and full documentation of all research. 

WORKING WITH LEGACY TREE GENEALOGISTS

If you're curious about working with Legacy Tree Genealogists, you can fill out a form for a free quote and conversation with one of our experts to find out if we're a good fit!

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Meet Jacqulyn, Project Manager for Legacy Tree Genealogists

Jacqulyn Hughes Legacy Tree GenealogistsJacqulyn's love for research began with her curiosity about her Cape Verdean lineage. She was fascinated by the culture and the island's integral role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Her curiosity quickly turned into a passion to identify her ancestors and understand their stories. Her journey to identify her ancestors, as for many African descendants, proved challenging. It led her to focus her research efforts on pre-civil war records in the Deep South and using autosomal DNA to expand family trees.

Jacqulyn is a professional researcher, with experience managing large research projects. Her expertise in investigations, project management, and real estate informs her mindful and comprehensive approach. Jacqulyn is fueled by her passion to tell her ancestor’s stories. She enjoys protecting the context of our history and rediscovering what may be lost.

Her hunger for details and determination to turn facts into understanding has contributed to her long-term success.  She offers a unique perspective through her understanding of land records and ability to trace our ancestors' movement through history. She understands the intrinsic value of oral history and it being the foundation of all research projects.  Jacqulyn believes mindfulness in research is key to success, a creed she lives out through her interest in nature, community, and motherhood.

Jacqulyn joined Legacy Tree in 2024 after 8 years of working as a freelance family history researcher. She continues to support others on their research journey through education and volunteering. She also remains a strong advocate for black cemetery restoration and assisting people of color in submitting DNA samples.

We’d love to help you with your family history, whether we’re breaking down brick wall mysteries, finding your biological parents, or just starting from scratch finding the stories about your ancestors. Contact us today for a free quote.

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Meet LaDonna, Project Manager for Legacy Tree Genealogists

LaDonna Garner Legacy Tree GenealogistsLaDonna Garner’s venture into family history began with a junior high assignment on her family origins that only raised more questions than answers. With few elders available for advice, the quest for solving the family mysteries set the course for a lifetime of research, brick walls, and interesting discoveries. Decades later, through college, career changes, and raising a family, her genealogy hobby was always present. Today, that hobby has evolved into a career she greatly enjoys — helping others discover their family curiosities.

Garner is an active member of numerous genealogical and historical societies in leadership and volunteer roles. She teaches workshops and lectures on family history methodology with patience and brings awareness to historic preservation concerns. One may assume her passion for cemetery and community preservation are current ventures. Still, it goes back to her teen years sitting beneath a tree in the silence of a burial ground reading a book.

LaDonna has an M.A. in Historic Preservation from Goucher College and an A.A.S Veterinary Tech. She resides in Southeast Missouri with her husband and a farm of heritage animals.

We’d love to help you with your family history, whether we’re breaking down brick wall mysteries, finding your biological parents, or just starting from scratch finding the stories about your ancestors. Contact us today for a free quote.

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Asian Genealogy Research: The Challenges and The Rewards

Etching Japanese family having tea

There can be many challenges as you make the journey through your Asian genealogy research to find your ancestors and learn more about your family history over the generations. We’re here to help you know how to get started with your family history in countries like China, Japan, Korea, and throughout Asia. 

This article was written from a live interview with Asian genealogy expert Ryan Rockwood, which you can view on our YouTube channel here. 

MAIN OBSTACLES WITH ASIAN GENEALOGY RESEARCH

ASIAN LANGUAGE BARRIERS

One of the most obvious and difficult challenges for most people who begin their Asian genealogy research journey is understanding the languages. Asian language groups are entirely different from what many of us are used to as we navigate Romantic or Germanic languages that have a similar alphabet to English. Research in Asian countries requires either learning to read and understand a completely different language or hiring someone who can help you read basic documents, letters, and other records. 

DIFFERENT GENEALOGICAL RECORD-KEEPING METHODS IN ASIA THAN IN WESTERN COUNTRIES

The way many Asian countries have kept genealogical records over the years is vastly different from the way western countries keep records. In western countries, records are kept for an individual, such as their birth and marriage records. Records can be traced back to an individual through life events that are documented and archived. 

On the other hand, Asian countries tend to keep genealogy records as a family set. Individual events are added to the family records. These family record sets can be quite difficult to find, but once you’re able to find them, you inherit an incredible amount of information about your family and extended family history. These records also tend to be more robust and credible as they provide a full family picture rather than an isolated individual’s life record. 

SURPRISING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WESTERN EUROPEAN AND ASIAN GENEALOGY RESEARCH

Beyond the language and record-keeping differences, there are other genealogical roadblocks you might experience as you search for your Asian ancestors. In western countries, there are far more open-access records (with some nuance) that make it much easier to get access to census and vital records. However, in Asian countries, privacy laws are very strict, and they often require local citizens to request access to the documents you’re seeking. Working with professionals who have connections to onsite researchers is a game-changer. 

couple by the river

ONSITE GENEALOGY RESEARCH IN ASIA 

Is it required for you to be onsite for any Asian genealogy research you’re pursuing? Not necessarily–as always, it depends on which country and which record set you’re dealing with. There are many Chinese records that have been digitized and are available on FamilySearch as well as My China Roots. 

However, it’s difficult to access records in Japan unless you have connections to an onsite researcher who can request the records on your behalf. Though it may seem like a challenge to deal with an onsite researcher, again, once you find your family’s record set, you’ve found a treasure trove of information far beyond your immediate ancestors. 

WHAT KIND OF FAMILY HISTORY RECORD TYPES DO THEY KEEP IN ASIA?

In many Asian countries, large record sets were kept by clans. When you set out to find your ancestors in Asia, you’ll want to link into their clan genealogy. If you can locate your family’s clan genealogy, then you’ve linked in with thousands of people. It can be quite difficult to discover your family’s clan genealogy, but when you do find it, all the work pays off in spades.

In Japan, the record set you’ll be looking at is a family set called koseki. During the Meiji era (1868-1912), surnames were only used by people in positions of power, nobility, or great artistic ability. Kosekis came into use in the 1850s for more prominent samurais, and in 1872 they became more available for almost everyone. These record sets contain information about birth, marriage, death, adoption, and divorce of the people in the same household. Family members were stricken from the record in case of death, marriage, divorce, adoption, forfeiture of citizenship, or leaving home by another means to establish an independent household. 

THE KOSEKI PROJECT

During the 1950s-1970s, real privacy concerns emerged in Japan that made koseki records no longer publicly available. The path to prove descendancy can be incredibly laborious. You would have to request access to the records in person or with a hand-signed letter. The barrier to entry was, of course, so much harder for non-Japanese speaking people in search of their ancestors. Legacy Tree Genealogists has a team of onsite researchers that we work with to get our clients access to their family records. A client grants power of attorney to request records, and the success rate is surprising. It’s a great resource for people who can’t do it on their own. 

CHINESE GENEALOGY RESEARCH

To find your Chinese ancestors, you’ll look for your family jiapu–the Chinese genealogy holy grail. Chinese clans were responsible for the compilation of a jiapu 家谱 or zupu 族谱 (pronounced ‘chia-poo’ and ‘dzoo-poo’), also known as a Chinese genealogy book or family history book. This is the ultimate prize for any Chinese genealogist. If you can’t get the records you want online, nor can you travel yet to China for yourself, you can do quite a bit of Chinese genealogy research at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. 

KOREAN GENEALOGY RESEARCH

Korean street and architecture

For those with Korean ancestry, you’ll want to find your family’s jokbo. Jokbo is a clan’s family history that shows mutual bloodlines, the relationship between different members, and an individual’s personal information. Jokbo records were published to maintain hierarchical order in the community and maintain the social class system. The first jokbo was published in the 15th century.

WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR ASIAN FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH [h2]

The best place to start your Asian genealogy research is the same as researching any other ancestral history throughout the world: talk to your family! For many people, talking with family isn’t as easy as it sounds. Family members who are part of the Asian diaspora, who came to the United States, often wanted to be accepted as Americans. In order to be accepted, they often discouraged the younger generation from speaking their birth language, and made a conscious effort to remove any evidence of a previous culture. The knowledge of their homeland was quickly lost. For this reason, many older members in your family might hesitate to dig up anything they left behind when they immigrated to a new country. 

There also might be very real reasons your grandparents or aunts and uncles aren’t keen to open up immediately. For example, the history between Japan and America hasn’t always been friendly. There was a great influx of Japanese immigrants right before World War II, and the relationship became fraught during the war with Japanese internment camps–despite Japanese-American loyalties, they were treated quite poorly. So it’s wise to approach such topics with care and empathy.

It's usually the fourth generation that begins to wonder about where their family came from. And that could very likely be you! You might find it difficult to start conversations with extended family members, but it’s absolutely worth it! When family members begin to open up, you begin your journey to discovering the records you’re looking for. 

 

If you’d like help obtaining access to records in any Asian country, we’d be more than happy to help you find the family history records you’re looking for. Contact us today to see if we’re a good fit for your Asian genealogy research project. 

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Your Genealogical Family Tree Versus Your Genetic Family Tree: Inheritance Patterns and Why They Matter

As you delve deeper into your family history research, you'll soon discover there are endless ways to arrange your family tree. Learn more about the difference between a genealogical and a genetic family tree from one of our genetic genealogists.

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“You have your mother’s eyes!” 

“You look just like your grandfather.”  

“You have your great-grandmother’s singing voice!” 

Many of us grew up hearing sayings such as these, about how our physical traits, talents, or personality quirks remind family members of generations gone before us. For example, I’ve often been told that I must have inherited my love of music from my maternal great-grandmother, who was a talented pianist. However, I certainly did not inherit my paternal grandmother’s talent as a painter and artist – those skills must have gone to my cousins. 

Using DNA to Create a Family Tree

As a genetic genealogist, I often think of the segments of DNA we inherit from our ancestors in the same way personality traits or areas of talent shine through across generations. Multiple descendants of a common ancestor all inherit slightly different portions of that shared ancestor’s DNA, just a person and their siblings may reflect different parts of their parent’s appearance as they age. There are traits we inherit and traits we do not. 

Genealogical DNA tests are one of the many resources family historians rely on to solve complex problems. Every person inherits basically half of their DNA from their parents, about one quarter from their grandparents, one eighth from their great-grandparents, and so forth. However, this division becomes less even with every subsequent generation. After five or six generations, there may be ancestors from whom a person inherits no DNA at all.  

In the following hypothetical genetic tree of a DNA tester, the first generation (“Joe”) shares 100 percent of their DNA with himself. Joe shares 50 percent of his DNA with his parent, but rather than an expected 25 percent shared DNA with each grandparent, Joe inherited a 21/29 percent split. At the great-grandparent level, each contributed 10 and 11 percent DNA, respectively. Notice how the sum of the DNA from the great-grandparents equals the total of their child, the tester’s grandparent.  

This tester therefore could not share DNA with any descendants of his depicted great-great-great-grandfather’s ancestors. If the tester has genetic cousin matches to descendants of his great-great-great-grandparents, all shared DNA would be from the great-great-great-grandmother. If Joe’s great-great-great-grandfather was a stubborn brick wall ancestor, no amount of searching Joe’s DNA matches would yield relevant cousins. 

However, let’s say Joe has a sister, Susan. Even though Joe and Susan are full siblings, they inherited different portions of their shared ancestors’ DNA. Susan’s genetic tree might look like this: 

Susan inherited six percent of her DNA from her and Joe’s mysterious great-great-great-grandfather, whereas Joe inherited no DNA from him! Susan could very well have key genetic matches on that ancestral line that could break down the family’s stubborn genealogical brick wall. However, if Joe had relied on his DNA results alone and not enlisted his sister to help with the research by taking a DNA test, he may never have found out why that ancestor seemed so elusive in his DNA. 

This principle can be extrapolated across varying degrees of cousins. A person and their first cousins share a set of grandparents, but each cousin inherited different portions of their grandparents’ DNA, second cousins share great-grandparents, and each second cousins inherited different portions of their great-grandparents’ DNA, and so forth. This is why it is essential to analyze the DNA results of multiple descendants of a research subject where possible. You never know which cousin’s DNA holds the key to unlocking a longstanding family mystery! 

If you'd like help analyzing and organizing your DNA test results to create your own accurate family tree, you can purchase a research project to work with our professional genetic genealogy team. 

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How to Organize Old Photographs and Memorabilia For Genealogy Research

Do you have old photographs and memorabilia you'd like to organize for your genealogy research? Read on to discover the best ways to start organizing and discovering more of your family's rich history. 

old photographs genealogy

Photographs bring history to life and are a very important part of genealogists' research. Being able to match faces to names on a family tree can help us fully embrace the reality of our ancestors. While we can't always find photographs from the past to add to a family tree, we can make an effort to carefully document our current photo libraries so that future generations will come to know their ancestors more intimately.

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with an expert in the photo organization space, Cathi Nelson, founder of The Photo Managers. Cathi has a long history of photo organization, starting with paper scrapbooking many decades ago and leading the industry today in digital photo management at The Photo Managers. This international business supports professional photo organizer members who work one-on-one with clients to organize and document their photos and history.

Why You Need to Organize Old Photographs and Memorabilia

Many of us have totes and boxes of old photographs, documents, and memorabilia. It can be easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of photos to organize. Still, by following a systematic process, these photos can significantly improve your genealogy efforts and help the next generation embrace their ancestors through the stories and legacy that come to life through photos.

Cathi shared the importance of photo organization:

I believe that as humans, we're wired for connection, to tell stories, to reminisce, and to remember. Photos and videos document our visual heritage. Thus, photo organization is about leaving behind a meaningful, curated story of your family's history and traditions, the things you cared about. Why you laughed and why you cried, and all those things.

Rather than viewing photo organization as a task that must be endured, the focus can rest on the stories and the true meaning behind our personal history.  

photographs genealogy

Cathi then shared a great way to view the process of photo organization. “Think of photo organizing like telling a story. You need a beginning, middle, and end. As you go through and digitize photographs, look for the story lines”

While this may be second nature to a professional like Cathi, we often face obstacles during photo organization. Cathi shared her perspective from her years of experience:

First of all, when you open the box of photos, you're usually overwhelmed by nostalgia. There's going to be a lot of emotions when you look at old photos. Also, there is a lot of concern because people think photos must be organized chronologically. And if they threw them into boxes or somebody dropped  them , it's a mess. Suddenly you think, I can never put all that back together, but you can!  I love to tell people; there are no rules. You don't have to do this in a specific way.

Organizing Old Photographs and Memorabilia by Theme

Cathi recommends that we focus on organizing photos by themes instead of focusing only on chronology. Our brains enjoy looking for patters or themes such as holidays, vacations, birthdays, travel, sports etc. Themes can make this process less overwhelming and you can showcase your family values by sharing your most treasured memories.

Because starting can be difficult, The Photo Managers has certified and trained hundreds of business owners who can work with clients to get them started or complete the organization projects for them.

Cathi shared a few ways The Photo Managers work with clients:

Working with a professional photo manager can be incredibly beneficial, and there are several ways to do so. Many professionals begin by offering an initial call to help you get started, guiding you through the necessary steps and processes. They often provide virtual workshops or in-person classes, ensuring you have the resources to learn and succeed. Another great option is to hire a professional to collaborate with you on your project, akin to having your own personal coach. This approach allows for a more hands-on experience, with the professional guiding you through each step.

Finally, once trust is established, many clients prefer to turn their projects over to the professionals entirely. These experts, trained in best practices, manage the project for you, often resulting in significant progress and results. Initially, many people believe they can handle the task themselves, but as they become overwhelmed, they realize the value of professional help.

Understanding the photo organization process can make the experience much more meaningful and enjoyable, whether you are a DIY photo organizer or choose to hire a professional.

5 Steps For Photo Management

At The Photo Managers, they teach five steps to photo management that can keep you aligned and moving forward.   

  1. The first step is setting a goal and knowing what you want to accomplish. For example, do you have a life event like a graduation or wedding coming up that you want to make an album for?  Are you ready to downsize and share the best photo with future generations? Get clear on your goal.
  2. The next step is to take an inventory. We call it the hunt and gather stage. Grab a notepad and start writing down, what you have in your collection. For example, I have four boxes of old photos under the bed and 6 magnetic albums on bookshelves. In my desk drawer I have two old iPhones, and a baggy of memory cards. Don’t forget to look for old home movies, letters and newspaper articles. The more you look the more you’ll find, and the goal is to write it all down.
  3. Step three is the curation. I created the ABCs of photo organizing to help people think through the process.
    1. A: First, ask yourself: Is this archival worthy? Is it album-worthy? You want about 10% in the A category.
    2. B: If the photo is not an A photo, then ask yourself if it is a B photo, one you want to keep but it’s not album worthy. Those go into a photo safe box. You will probably end up with 50% going back in the box.
    3. C: Many people resist throwing away photos, but we say C is yes you CAN throw photos away into the CAN. To make it easier, start with blurry, doubles, scenery shots, and many travel shots that don't have a story behind them. Throw away as many as you possibly can. We don't need to keep them unless they belong in the A or B pile. Be ruthless, no one wants boxes or files of photos unless they are a…S Photo.
    4. S: is Story. You are looking for the story behind the photo. Does it tell a story? If there is a story that is worth remembering, then put it in the A file.
  4. Step four is to scan your photos and we recommend you organize before you scan. This will save you a lot of time, money and frustration. Now is the time to also back up your photos onto an external hard drive and the cloud. 
  5. Last of all, Step five is the best part, once your photos are organized, you can celebrate and share by making photobooks, on-line photo galleries and share via digital photo frames and more. The ideas are endless!

When digital photography came on the scene, there was a natural decline in printing physical photos. However, as Cathi has noticed, this trend is reversing.  

Printing is having a renaissance. It's fascinating. Film is returning in a huge way, especially with the younger generation. They buy film cameras, take photos on film, then scan them using an old-fashioned scanner so that the photos can be shared on Instagram, and it's really fascinating.

The Stories Behind Old Photographs and Memorabilia

The story behind photos can be very helpful in genealogy research. When an old photo is found with names and dates noted, it can be a true treasure. At The Photo Managers, clients often want to learn more about their family history as they go through old photographs.

“Clients have started asking these questions because maybe the client has started doing genealogy on their own, and then when they discover those really old photos, they want to put those pieces together.”

Because The Photo Managers does not specialize in genealogy, its partnership with Legacy Tree Genealogists can be very useful in helping these clients continue their genealogy research.  

Similar to the many online platforms useful for genealogy, there are many online resources for managing photo organization. Cathi shared a few of her favorites with us.   

If you are proficient on your own PC or  Mac, you can start within the folder structure on your computer. Date the folders and move photos into folders. That's as basic as you can get. When you are ready for a more robust software program,  Mylio is a digital software program we recommend. For on-line sites, we recommend  Permanent , PC Cloud and Forever.

When organizing photos, Cathi outlined several options to help you think outside the box.   

The next generation does not think in terms of the folder structure. They think in terms of search. Search engines have trained their brains to think according to themes. Those of us at a certain age still organize by folders. As we move along, thematically is fine because the search is already available on all your digital photos, including the date and times. They're already timestamped and geotagged, and all of that will be there. You can get your arms around it more thematically. If you take the time to think about the themes of your life, it can be overwhelming. So, just choose a few to start with. And there is no right way to do this; it's all very personal.

If you have been inspired to roll up your sleeves and start organizing your shoeboxes full of photos, random memory cards, and old phones full of images, you can learn about all the options for you at  https://thephotomanagers.com/. They offer weekly classes, a year-long training program for people who want to organize their own photos, as well as certification and educational conferences for professional members. You can also visit The Photo Managers YouTube channel for live-events, classes, tips and  information.

 

As you organize your photos and discover the stories behind your ancestors, Legacy Tree Genealogists is here to assist you in extending your family tree and finding those meaningful family connections. Contact us for a free quote today.  

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Part Two: Using AI in Genealogy Research Best Practices

In part one, we explain the basics of artificial intelligence and how you might begin to think about using AI in your genealogy research.

Here, in part two, we'll go more in depth with AI expert Steve Little to help you get a bigger picture about how AI could be useful in genealogy research now and in the future. Steve is a co-host of The Family History AI Show podcast, and AI educator with the National Genealogical Society (NGS).

LTG: What is prompt engineering?  

Steve: 

Prompt engineering is just a fancy term for “chatting with your chat bot,” that is, giving a language model the context to respond with the next right word.  By context, I like the analogy of short-term memory.  The technical jargon the experts use is “context window”. During the summer and fall of 2023, ChatGPT had a context window of about three pages, or a useful over-simplification would be to say, it had the short-term memory to process about three pages. It's significantly bigger now and every month it gets bigger.  

For example, when you lead the chatbot through a discussion of second cousins once removed and the formation of a GEDCOM file, you are setting the context. That is, you are putting words (and therefore ideas) about cousins and GEDCOM files in the model’s short-term memory, so to speak, so that the chatbot will have the words available to draw from and continue the discussion.  

When a user and a chatbot are talking about genealogy and second cousins and GEDCOM files and parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, then all the other statistically associated words in the model’s neural network are on standby, so to speak. That is, those genealogy related words are available to be selected as a probable next right word. When you lead a LLM through a discussion, you are shaping the context of the conversation. That's what prompt engineering is now: shaping a discussion, a dialog, in a useful way.  

In a sense, there are eight billion people on earth who know how to use these machines because by the time you are four years old, you know how to talk, and that's all that's required to use a language model. By the time you're four years, you know how to talk, and these tools just talk and listen.  

But all human communication is fraught with the possibility of misunderstanding. The reality is that people misunderstand each other all the time because words are slippery fish. If I say the word bank, for some people, a bank is where I put my money. But if you live in Wyoming and you enjoy fishing, you stand on the stream bank or the riverbank while you fish. 

If you're a pilot, how does a pilot steer an airplane? They bank the aircraft. The word bank is slippery – all words are slippery fish – and these tools are very good with slippery fish. But not perfect.  

What is different and difficult for us today is that we are not accustomed to imperfect machines, not in the strange ways these tools are imperfect. Because language models may not always understand the context of our conversations, it may surprise us. We think of these algorithms as imperfect, and we're not used to that. It may seem usefully creative in one context and factually challenged at the next moment.  

The first time you see one of these things you make a statement that you know is incorrect, not factually true, and doesn't correspond with the real world, it feels like being thrown off a cliff. We must learn to reconcile these imperfections with the usefulness of the tools.   

LTG:  Can you share a genealogy use case from a newspaper article? 

Steve: 

Let’s say you found a newspaper article from a hundred years ago, and it's a long profile of one of your ancestors. For example, imagine you are related to Charles Lindberg, and you discover a 20-page magazine profile of Charles Lindberg. You could give the language model that 20-page profile and tell it to extract every name that's mentioned in the profile and include how the named person is related to Charles Lindberg. Were they a family member? Were they another pilot? Were they a business partner? Were they someone Lindberg met on the street?

What you might ask the model to do would be, “Look at this article, generate a list of people mentioned in this article, and tell me their relationship to Charles Lindbergh.” And then you realize, well, gosh, now I'm going to have to go through and read the whole article to verify the relationship (not that reading the article is such a bad thing). 

But here is a tip: have the chatbot help you with the verification. You could say, “Add a third column, after the name in the first column and the relationship in the second column. Now add a third column, showing and quoting to me the exact sentence that led you to presume or make the claim that Bob Smith is Charles Lindbergh's nephew. Give me that sentence and tell me what page number that's on.” And the language model will process the 20-page profile in moments, creating a spreadsheet with names, relationships, and quoted evidence.  

 LTG:  How can genealogists collaborate with GPT to help the entire community? 

Steve: 

Collaborative learning is huge, and there's a long history of technology, of people sharing ideas and learning together.  

Once you figure out how to do a task, like analyzing an obituary, you can create a tool and save your prompt. That way the prompt is ready for you next time you need to analyze an obituary. You don’t have to recreate the wheel. OpenAI calls these saved prompts a custom GPT.  

So, a custom GPT is a way to save your prompts and to share your prompts. So, for example, if you and I process obituaries all day, and you tweak your obituary prompt so that it does something a little bit better, then we share that. And now we both have that better prompt. That's what these custom GPTs do. It's a way of sharing prompts. Like adding useful, helpful little tools to a Swiss Army knife. You discover a small task where the language model is helpful, efficient, or timesaving, then you save and share that use case prompt. And the whole community benefits. That is one of the purposes of my site AI Genealogy Insights.  

GeneaGPT and Custom GPTs: How they work

LTG:  Tell us about Open GeneaGPT.  

Steve: 

Open GeneaGPT is a long prompt I’ve created where I've asked the AI to pretend to be a genealogist.  It's just a prompt that says, “You are a professional genealogist. You know about the genealogical proof standard. Users are going to ask you questions about genealogy; answer them as if you were a professional genealogist. And adhering to the genealogical proof standard is important to you in your response to a user.” 

In its short-term memory, it says, “Okay, I'm a genealogist.” When you ask it a question, for example, “How should I get started in genealogy?”, it consistently says, start with yourself. Start from what you know, which is basic genealogical advice. How many blog posts and glossy genealogy magazines, and how many podcasts and how many workshops have you gone to where they say, start with yourself and work backwards. Open GeneaGPT offers basic help like that.   

LTG: How can other genealogists access these Custom GPTs? 

Steve: 

Right now, only one company makes this available to share these prompts, and that is OpenAI with Explore GPTs. It’s like a free app store for custom GPTs. You get access to custom GPTs and the ability to create and save these little tools.

Open AI's GPTs for research at Legacy Tree Genealogists

Other companies are also adding more AI tools. Microsoft gives you free access to OpenAI's tools. Within Microsoft's Bing browser, you can access Copilot, the Microsoft AI. In all your Microsoft products such as Excel, Word PowerPoint, in the Bing browser, you now have a Copilot button.  

OpenAI has a GPT store where there are now tens of thousands if not millions of these tools.  People have found use cases, and they're sharing them with others. We don't have to reinvent the wheel.  

For example, there is one tool that uses image analysis; you can open your refrigerator and take a picture of what's in your refrigerator, and this custom GPT will suggest to you what to cook for dinner based on the ingredients that it identifies from the image of your refrigerator. It looked and it said, “Oh, there's some hamburger, and egg, and there's an onion. What can we do with these ingredients? Let's make meatloaf!”  

LTG: What are AI tools best suited for? 

Steve: 

The four basic transformations especially useful to genealogists performed by language model tools like ChatGPT are summarization, extraction, generation, and translation.  

Summarization

Summarization is when you take a lot of words, and you condense them, like transforming a lump of coal into a diamond.  You take a page worth of a biography, and you distill it to a tweet – and it's exquisite, it's poetic, it is worthy of a haiku. These things are very good at language. If you were to give it the obituary of Charles Lindbergh and say, reduce this to an award-winning haiku, it would. Summarization is taking a lot and making it smaller.  

Extraction

Extraction is finding a needle in a haystack, but it's more like finding a golden needle in a field of haystacks. It's like saying, go out and find all the mentions of this name. 

Generation

Language models are very good at generating text. It's good at taking a little bit of words and spinning that out into a lot of words. For example, this is your report generation. This is where you start with a list of names, dates, places, events, and relationships. That's genealogical information. That's a little export from your genealogical database. For example, ”Here's John Smith's family – a little list of names, dates, places, relationships, and events. Turn that list into a narrative report, a poem, a short story, or a genealogical biographical report. And only use the facts from this list.” And it will generate text exactly matching your prompt instructions.  

Translation

The last basic LLM transformation is translation. And that's much more than translating human languages. It will translate from one human language to another with caveats. It's not perfect. It's very good. It's as good as any other computer translation out there. But it’s not better than a paid translator. However, if you don’t speak both languages in the translation, the source and the target language, you may need an outside validator to verify it. This saves time as the translator then only needs to validate rather than create the original translation.  

However, translation is much more than French to English. It also means you can take something like Shakespeare, and you can translate Shakespeare into contemporary English. If you have an old will, it can translate legalese into plain English. Or you could take a modern-day contract and say, help me understand.  

It could also translate 17th century legalese. If you had a 17th century deed written in yards and chains and metes and bounds – things that beginners may not understand – you could translate the deed into plain English. It can also translate from a scholarly article. For example, if you have an article about genetic genealogy and you want to say, “Explain this to me like I'm a fifth grader, or I’m a 10th grader.” It can translate it in a way that is easier to understand.  

And it will even take a bullet point list. You could just jot down a handful of notes, and you could say, “Take these handful of notes and spin this up to a business proposal or an email or a letter or report or a memo to file, or anything.” And so that's another form of translation. 

And the last way that it's important to understand translation is as a very good editor. You can give it a very rough first draft, and you could say, “Translate this from a rough draft into standard written professional business English.” 

AI for Translating Handwriting in Genealogy Research 

LTG: Can the AI tools today read handwriting? 

Steve: 

These tools are getting better at reading handwriting, and they can read block, handwritten block print. Ultimately, though, we want handwritten text recognition (HTR) to be as good as speech recognition. By comparison, right now, we can talk to Siri or Alexa, and they are very accurate. Handwriting text recognition is not where speech recognition is. 

We all want handwriting to be where speech recognition is. We want it to just work the way speech recognition works. We want to show it a letter from a grandparent that it's never seen before and see it accurately recognize the text. But right now, that's not how it works. Today, you must train AI systems to understand your grandmother's cursive handwriting. And just because you teach it one grandmother's cursive handwriting, you've got other grandmothers, and her handwriting may not look the same as this one.

Cursive Handwriting and AI

HTR systems are getting closer, but our expectations are through the roof. We want to give them the hardest problems, writing that none of us can visually figure out. We want the computer to do it. That’s a little beyond what they're up to. But it is coming eventually. At least, that is the hope and expectation. But we’re not there yet. Handwriting is hard.  

LTG: How do you anticipate these tools impacting the efficiency in the workplace, and specifically for genealogists? 

Steve: 

They will make us much more efficient. You’ll be able to get more work done in 40 hours than you did before. Or you could say, I did my 40 hours’ worth of work in 35 hours, and now I've got five extra hours. I can either do more work or I can spend five hours with my family.  

We’re in an age of discovery today. Many people are trying different things, to find out what tasks these AI tools are good at. And once one genealogist finds a way to use these tools, and then they share that successful task with other genealogists, those accomplishable tasks are called use cases. And so, we all get smarter, better, and faster. But to get there, often we try things that don't work. Sometimes we'll try to use AI to do something, and it may or may not do it. And even if it does it, there may still be an old school way that's better. So right now, folks are trying things, and sometimes they work, but that doesn't always mean it's better. Sometimes the old school way just works better. And there are many, many tasks that AI is close to doing reliably now, and in six months and six years, AI will be able to do more. We just don't know how long it will take to accomplish any specific task. This uneven advance is called the jagged frontier.  

For the folks who want to participate in using and learning AI, it's going to give them superpowers. It's going to make you better and faster and quicker at your job if you're a knowledge worker.  

Implementing AI will lead to an opportunity for company growth as well. Chief Executive Officers will say, “I'm going to keep one hundred percent of my people and we're going to do 150% of the work that we used to do. We're going to grow our business. We're going to hire more people because we're better at this than anybody else. For example, we can do genealogy better, faster, and cheaper than our competition because we've trained our 75 researchers how to use these tools to produce twice the work in the same amount of time.” 

Read part one of this two-part series here. 

At Legacy Tree Genealogists we focus on the best possible results for our clients and are constantly seeking out new tools and resources, such as the use of AI, to make our time more efficient and effective. Are you ready to hire a genealogist? Reach out for a free quote and get started today.